Primis
by Spyash2
Summary: A new land. A new place. Sure how he had gotten here was...bad. Which is an understatement. And, sure, he could whine and bitch about the unfairness of it all; but that won't change anything. All he can do, is go with the flow. A/N: lost interest; chapters will be uploaded until the 20th.
1. Chapter 1

A teenage boy lay on top of a slab in a darkened room. He was naked and surrounded by surgical tools on a table next to him. While on the other contains an organic substance of a worrying nature. It resembled flesh only it looks malformed and has scales growing out of it. With how pale and dead he looked the place he was in could be considered a morgue. However, the teenage boy was not dead. He was still breathing. However he was completely pumped full of suppressants specifically created for keeping people in a coma.

Several people were in the room with the unresponsive boy. All of them were wearing black clothes that hid their physique; some had their faces concealed by hoods or masks.

One darkly dressed figure reached for a surgical knife and brought it to the boys neck with the tip ready to cut into the skin. And then without any warning, like it was a sign from a deity, a hole in the fabric of reality opened at the end of the room and two people walked out of it. They almost looked like a carbon copy of the boy on the slab.

One of them, a young man is his early 20's had actual glowing vibrant blue eyes, and wore clothing that looked foreign to them. Black trousers, a black tank top with a trench coat worn over it; military grade boots and other solider like garments is worn. He just so happens to have very pale and sickly looking skin, with the veins seen underneath the tissue, along with bleeding bullet holes on his body. And he is also floating and has a heavy mist surrounding him.

The other person is a much younger and healthier version of the man. Spiked blonde hair and blue eyes, the teenager wore clothes that are just as alien to the men. Wearing a pair of olive coloured trousers and dirtied black boots with mud and dried blood; and an unbuttoned light green jacket with the sleeves rolled up, and a black shirt worn underneath. Holstered on his waist is a Remington Model 1858 revolver. In his hands is an M-16 assault rifle too.

"Intruders!" one of the men shouted in alarm.

Before any of them could move the older blonde raised his arm, brought it back before throwing it out towards the dark clothed men. All of them let out startled screams as they were thrown off their feet by an unknown force. They smashed into the wall on the other side of the room and the impact instantly knocked them out.

The teenage boy winced at the sounds of flesh hitting stone. He was sure he had heard a few crunching sounds mixed in there somewhere.

With the men dispatched one of the newcomers spotted the unconscious boy on the slab.

"Looks like we found him, Naruto." the older man said as he lowered his arm. He floated over to the slab with the younger boy following. "And he's still alive."

"Good." the teenager, Naruto said. He looked down at the naked blonde, more specifically his face. "Fucking hell he looks like a carbon copy of me."

The glowing eyed blonde looked at the teenager beside him. "He is you." he said, prompting the other blonde to look up at him.

"A different version of me?"

His question made the sentient zombie shake his head in the negative. "No. He is you. Just like I am you." seeing the confused look he was getting, the zombie gave an analogy, "In simpler terms, think of me and him as reflections in a mirror. When it's whole you see a single reflection of yourself. But when you crack it, you get multiple reflections. You see other reflections of yourself in the cracked glass. They're not different versions of yourself, they're still you."

While a little unsure he nodded to show he understands. Well; he understood parts of it.

"I wish there was something I could use to make this version of me take my blood." Naruto 1.0 sighed.

"Well," the teenager looked at Naruto 2.0 who to his surprise took out a vial attached to a needle injector and a syringe, "I had a feeling this was going to be needed. Glad it turned out to be true."

"How long did you have that?" Naruto 1.0 asked his eyes wide with surprise and astonishment at his luck.

"I had it ever since we came out of that experiment room." Naruto 2.0 answered, before tossing the vial and syringe to the teenager. Naruto 1.0 caught them both with both hands, although he had to drop his assault rifle to catch them both.

"What should I do?"

"Stick the syringe into your arm and take the blood out, then put it in the vial." instructed Naruto 2.0 as he undid the top of the vial, "Now I don't know how effective this is going to be, I'm in the dark as you are. But I'll bet the best way for this to work for the unconscious us, is to ingest it." the sentient zombie said as Naruto 1.0 did as instructed. The blood filled the syringe and the teenager used it to fill the vial. It took several tries to fill the container as the vial was rather big and wide and it left a noticeable bruise on his arm.

"And now for me." Naruto 1.0 looked at his zombie counterpart in surprise as he held his hand out with n expectant look on his face.

"You're doing this as well?" he asked looking at the offered hand.

"Of course. Despite our differences we are still the same person. Now hand me the syringe." Naruto 1.0 was reluctant but hesitantly gave the zombie the syringe after several seconds, and was given the vial in return. The zombie looked at the needle, sighed, and stuck it in his arm. "It may not be sanitary to do this but hopefully my version of Element 115 will keep me healthy." he said as his blood filled the vial. Unlike the blood from the first Naruto, the life liquid from the second had a faint but noticeable yellow glow around it. It makes sense as Naruto 2.0 said Element 115 from his dimension is dark yellow.

The zombie exhaled as he pulled the needle from his arm and slipped it into the vial. His blood mixed with Naruto 1.0's. The lid was done up again and they stared. There was no visible change. Then Naruto 1.0 made the blood swirl in the vial to mix them in better.

"What are you-" Naruto 2.0's rant paused mid-way when he saw the blood gain a glowing aura. A reddish-orange glow. "-doing... Okay. That's new. I didn't think mixing our blood together would make a new type of Element 115."

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" Naruto 1.0 asked.

"I-I don't know. The side effects of our mixed blood in that vial are virtually limitless." the zombie replied with a scratch to his head. "He could have my power with your memories. Or my memories and experience with your personality. Or his, uh, body will experience a change so vast, that-uh, if he were awake it would-um break his mind. It could, could be anything, really."

"That is bad."

"Bad is an understatement." Naruto 2.0 sighed, "Alright, let's see here."

Then Naruto 1.0 saw his zombie counterpart putting his hand on the torso of the unconscious Naruto and was alarmed when the zombified Naruto's hand started glowing yellow.

"What are you doing?!" he hissed as he grabbed 2.0's wrist to stop him.

Calmly 2.0 looked at 1.0 and without stopping what he was doing answered.

"I am making sure he isn't dead. I think we can both agree that making a corpse inhale our combined blood would be short of...catastrophic."

It was a lie of course. He already knew the boy on the slab is alive. Instead he is giving the unconscious boy the European long sword and Bone Bow wonder weapons he swiped from the facility Group 935 and Division 9 were sharing.

But 1.0 didn't need to know that.

"But you said he wasn't dead." Naruto 1.0 pointed out with suspicious eyes.

"I can make mistakes y'know. This is just to be absolutely sure he isn't dead. Now can you let go of my wrist please?" Naruto 1.0 relented his hold on the zombie's wrist and allowed him to continue. Seconds later Naruto 2.0 finished transferring the wonder weapons and pulled away, informing the younger Naruto that the boy is alive.

"So, then, what now? Do we get him to ingest the blood or something?"

Naruto 2.0 rubbed at his chin. He looked to the side, thinking, pondering on what to do. Then he looked at his still living counterpart standing beside him.

"We wake him up." Naruto 2.0 said/.

"You sure?" Naruto 1.0 questioned looking between the third Naruto and the second Naruto.

"Yeah. We may need to explain some things though. And ask some questions of our own. Like who those men I knocked out were." Naruto 2.0 replied as he gestured to the knocked out bodies of the men in black.

The first Naruto looked at the second Naruto for several long moments. Then he looked at the unconscious third Naruto and let out a sigh and nodded. Telling the second Naruto to proceed.

Naruto 2.0 gave a nod in thanks and pressed his hands on the third Naruto's chest and forehead. He closed his eyes, his forehead scrunched up in concentration; Naruto 1.0 leaned in slightly to get a better look.

The third Naruto opened his eyes without warning and screamed, startling them both and made the two Naruto's back away as he rolled off of the slab on onto the floor. Inhaling and exhaling in rapid succession as he stumblingly got to his feet, the now awakened third Naruto, or Naruto 3.0, looked around the room wildly for several seconds before they landed on his other counterparts.

Naruto 3.0 narrowed his eyes with wariness and suspicion. "...Who are you two? Why do you look like me?"

Naruto 1.0 and 2.0 shared a look for a brief moment. They turned to address the third Naruto before the first Naruto coughed and looked away, "You may want to put on some clothes first." the first Naruto said; Naruto 3.0 looked at the first with a furrowed brow, not understanding what he is getting at. He finally understood what number 1 had meant when number 2 had blown at him, and felt warm air brush against his skin.

"Oh hell! Where are my clothes?!" Naruto 3.0 said frantically as he wildly looked around the room.

"I'm going to take a look around." Naruto 1.0 suddenly announced and as he made his way to the door he added, "I'm going to see if there's anything you can wear stored here in this facility."

"Be careful." Naruto 2.0 called out, and received a thumbs up from 1.0 as acknowledgement and to show he heard him, just before he opened the door and walked outside.

"Should he be by himself?" Naruto 3.0 questioned after a moment of silence. He wasn't worried; how could he worry for someone he doesn't know; but even he knows wandering around in a place you've never been too before, by yourself, is a very bad idea.

"He'll be fine." then Naruto 2.0 looked at Naruto 3.0 with curiosity, "So...what happened that ended up causing you to be in a place like this?" when he asked that question Naruto 3.0 went stiff; rigid; a look of distaste, disdain, and stress appeared on the teens face; he clearly did not want to talk about it. The zombified Naruto acknowledged this and placated the younger one. "Hey. If you don't want to say, then that's fine. It's your business. I won't pressure you."

Naruto 3.0 was relieved to hear that and his posture relaxed. Looking at the unconscious forms of the men in black on the ground Naruto 3.0 watched quietly as the zombie floated over to them. A floating zombie was a sight that made the boy double take in disbelief. Glowing eyes? He saw stranger back home. Dead like pale skin? He saw people with similar skin conditions in the past. Floating off the ground and hover around? That was something he had not see before and it took him by surprise.

Dropping to the ground the zombified Naruto got down on one knee beside one of the unconscious men and pulled the hood back and was barely able to withhold the look of distaste. The man, who appears to be getting in on the years, had his face littered with scars. He was disfigured on the right side of the face, looking as if a doctor botched up on healing him multiple times.

Looking at another unconscious man, one who had a mask on, he went over and took it off. He was getting in on the years too. A receding hairline, wrinkles under his eyes and cheeks. He wasn't littered with scars, but there were a few warts and moles on his face. Some were big and some were small.

"Oh, god..." he looked over his shoulder when he heard the third Naruto trail off in disgust and found him staring at the scarred man. Chuckling he went back to checking on the faces off the other men and the two Naruto's found out two things: these men were either worse off in the looks department, or slightly better.

They found one man who had a disfigurement on the face. One that was worse off than the man with the scarred face. This man literally had no skin covering his cheek. His jaw, teeth and tongue were all visible and made for a nasty sight.

After several minutes they were done and waited for Naruto 1.0 to return. Five minutes later he returned with clothes in hand. A brown tunic with a white under shirt brown trousers and shoes. A black cloak with a hood and a pouch with a huge amount of hold in it.

"Here. Put these on." he tossed the clothes, plus pouch to Naruto 3.0 and looked away as the teenager began to put them on. When he was done 1.0 looked at his third counterpart and nodded with approval. He then took the glowing blood vial containing his blood and 2.0's and handed it over to the third Naruto who stared at it confused.

"What's this?"

"It's a vial containing our bloods." the zombie Naruto explained, pointing at himself and the Naruto he came to this dimension with. "When my blood mixed with his for some reason it changed to that colour."

He looked at the vial in his hand, "What should I do with it? What does it do?" he asked, gazing at the two Naruto's with expectancy. In his mind there was no way a glowing orange vial apparently containing their blood is going to be harmless. It must do something and he intends to find out what.

Naruto and Naruto 2.0 shared a look, with the former looking wary. The third Naruto was being eerily accepting of it, and they took note of that. They didn't say anything to the third Naruto regarding that though.

"To tell you the truth I don't have any idea what it does." Naruto told his third counterpart.

"I have a few theories, but nothing concrete." the second Naruto added on.

The third Naruto looked at the vial in his hand once more. His brow furrowing he rolled the small container in his fingers musingly. "Can you share those theories with me? Just to give me an idea of what to expect?" he looked at the adult with expectancy upon asking this. He wasn't going to get his hopes up but god damn if he wasn't curious!

"...If I'm going to tell you these theories, then you're going to need to know what exactly is in that vial." the zombie informed much to the surprise of the first.

"Weird orange glow aside, isn't it just blood?" Naruto 3.0 asked questionably. He wasn't at all shocked, or surprised when he received a negative head shake from Naruto 2.0. "Oh? Then what is it?"

"Before I tell you, you're going to need to know what exactly is in that vial..."

With that said the zombified Naruto began to inform the third Naruto just what is inside the vial in his hand. The side effects, both good and bad, and the likelihood of him not being the same person as he once was. Through all this the third Naruto listened patently; he never asked questions and when all was said and done after what seemed like hours of listening, he allowed himself to finally speak.

"So the vial has this...disease?"

"I wouldn't call it a disease. It acts nothing like a disease I'm familiar of." the first Naruto corrected, prompting the second and third Naruto's to look in his direction. "It's not contracted from other humans or animals either."

"If it's not from other people or animals then how did you both get it?" the third Naruto asked as he looked between the two.

"From rocks that fell from the sky. Giant ones."

The third Naruto stared for a moment and then he started laughing uproariously. However at the serious looks the other two had his laughter slowly died down, and his amusement turned to confusion.

"You...you're not joking? This disease really came from giant rocks from the sky?" he asked them all humour gone from his voice.

"No. We we most certainly not joking." the zombified Naruto replied, "Divinium – that's the name of the thing inside of the vial – is not from this world. It's so powerful that it can generate enough power to last for an eternity. But when it is applied to humans, well..."

The first Naruto picked up where the zombie counterpart left off, "It changes you. Personality, health and memory wise. Mister glowy eyes here is the extreme case of being exposed to Divinium. I am the minor case." that revelation shocked the teenager so much that he's looking at the second Naruto in a new light.

Their conversation was interrupted when they heard pained groans. The three Naruto's looked at the men and found some of them were coming too. Sighing Naruto walked to them and knocked them out.

The third Naruto winced as he saw his other self grab his assault rifle and smash the butt of it against their face one by one. Then he came to a realization. They can't stay here; he can't stay here. He looked at the tools on the table next to the slab he was laying on, and the dead scaly looking flesh, and knew what ever they were intending to do to him can't be good for his health.

"Can we leave this place?" he politely asked them, he really didn't want to be here any longer.

"Sure. This place is giving me the creeps." The twenty year old something Naruto replied. And that is saying something coming from him.

However the first Naruto looked at the newly unconscious men and wondered what he should do regarding them. Indecisive on what he should do, he decided on asking the other versions of himself and see what they would think, "Should kill these men? Killing them now would give you some time to lay low and keep your head down."

The third Naruto sighed and looked away in thought. The one in his twenties crossed his arms and backed out of this discussion. This has nothing to do with him so he will allow the third Naruto to decide their fate.

"Kill them." it was a no brainer for the third Naruto. If they were allowed to live then it would only be a matter of time before they find him again. If they were to die here, then, it would still be a matter of time before he is found again but at least he would have more than enough time to vanish. Or find a way home.

Nodding Naruto, the first one, took out his Colt. Python and shot each man point blank in the head. The loud gun shots surprised the third as he was not expecting such a noise to come from such an object. Once the men were taken care of the first Naruto put the Python back in its holster.

The men taken care of the three Naruto's walked out of the room. The first Naruto took point as he had already explored parts of the interior and has the most knowledge of the place. However the three of them got distracted when the third Naruto discovered a room. A rather mediocre looking office.

As they walked in they found it had a desk, and quite a few bookshelves with books. On on the desk itself were papers in an uneven stack. Walking over Naruto 3.0 picked up one piece of paper and frowned when he was unable to make out what it said.

"I can't read this." he said as he looked at his other counterparts.

The first Naruto walked over and took the paper from the third version of himself and looked it over. He frowned as well; he was unable to make out what most of it said but he knew what language it was. English. If only Dempsey were here.

When second Naruto walked over he peered over the shoulder of the first Naruto. "Huh. It looks like an AAR. Lemme see that." without waiting for a response he took the paper and read it.

Never having heard of the term before, the third Naruto looked at the first and asked, "What's an 'AAR'?"

"It's a shorter way to say 'After Action Report'. I'm not a solider, or a general, so I don't know what it entails exactly." he explained to his alternate self as best as he could.

"So that's how it is?" both Naruto's looked at the zombie and found him frowning with distaste. Whatever he read on that sheet of paper it made him feel immense dislike for the people in charge.

"What is it?" the first Naruto asked.

Putting the paper back down the second Naruto sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. He then looked at the Naruto of this dimension, "Looks like you were sold to these people. By your own parents."

However instead of denial or disbelief like they were expecting they were surprised when the third Naruto just...shrugged it off. As if it wasn't anything new. Like it didn't matter.

Naruto 1.0 and 2.0 stared as the third walked over to the doorway. "You're...not surprised? At all?" 1.0 asked, he was a little put off that his third counterpart wasn't going into denial or anything of the sort.

"Not really, no." Naruto 3.0 casually replied as the other two followed him out of the room. The other Naruto's shared a look and came to a silent agreement to not pressure him for more answers. They had a feeling he wouldn't take it too well. And besides it's not as if it would affect them in any way, this wasn't their dimension after all.

"So the me with the glowing eyes is the extreme case of being exposed to Divinium? What about you?" the third Naruto asked, going back to their previous topic because he hadn't learned of the lesser case of being exposed to Element 115 yet.

Naruto sighed. "I lost my memory. After that, from what I've been told my personality had been changed. I'm more...intolerant...towards people I dislike." intolerant to the degree he murdered someone just minutes after meeting him in cold blood. And he once shot a homeless person after he mistook him for a zombie.

"What else?"

"Well on the positive side I got healthier. Stronger and faster. On the negative side, I lost my memory and became a different person. Even worse, I could have died."

"Divinium can kill you?"

"Of course." hearing 2.0 confirm the words of the first had made the third look at him, worried and fearful. "You think I got like this alive? No. I'm a zombie. A living dead. I don't have the need to eat human flesh though. So there's a plus to that." he added as an afterthought.

"Not to mention you're pretty hard to kill." 1.0 pointedly said.

"I know. But back to the point. Both our bloods are in that vial in your hand. If you were to ingest it, then there are many side effects that can happen. Ranging from minor to extreme." he paused to let his words sink in before continuing. "Before you woke up the two of us were discussing some possibilities."

"What were they?" the third Naruto questioned.

"You could have my power with his memories. Or you could have my memories and experience with his personality." Naruto 2.0 pointed at himself and 1.0 respectively. "The possibilities are limitless. All of them are equally as good and bad."

As he took in those words Naruto 3.0 looked at the vial in his possession. He clenched it tightly, his lips thinning; after a quiet moment of debating to himself he decided to keep it and attached the blood vial to his trousers. Good or bad it'll be something that will bail him out of a very difficult situation.

Seeing the third counter part link the vial to his person from over his shoulder Naruto 2.0 nodded in approval and looked ahead of him and followed the one leading them out of the facility. An hour later the trio made it out. They could see a lot of rocky hills and barely any vegetation and flora around them. Shielding his eyes from the light the third Naruto took a few steps out in the open and stared directly ahead of him.

The other two made their way over until they were standing beside him and took in the sights too. They were on a hill as well and the facility they just came out of is built on the top of it. Like a castle on top of a plateau.

"What are you going to do now?" questioned the first Naruto.

"...Whoever these people are, they're going to be after me. I'm going to keep my head down and move from place to place."

The zombified Naruto nodded in approval. Never staying in one place for too long. And not bringing attention to himself. If he plays this smart he can keep himself hidden for years. And with the Bone Bow and long sword he secretly gave to him, the third Naruto would be able to defend himself from almost any opponents.

"What about you two?" he asked his dimensional counterparts.

"We did what we came here to do. So we are going to go back to where we came from." Naruto 2.0 answered.

"Okay." 3.0 said much to the surprise of the other two. The two shared a look; they were expecting him to ask them questions, not to just accept it willy nilly no questions asked,

"Really? Just like that? No questions asked?" the first Naruto questioned his tone matching his facial expression.

The third Naruto glanced at the first from the corner of his eye, then he looked down as he chuckled before looking out in the distance once more. "Sometimes it's best to not ask questions." he replied with a tilted head, and both Naruto's saw the wisdom in that. Asking questions lead to several possible outcomes. One leading to more trouble than it was worth, the other leading to more questions, and the third leading to more trouble than it's worth, fourth leading to nothing and so on.

As the third Naruto put it, it's often better to not ask questions that don't need asking. It's too much of a hassle. The other Naruto's nodded in acceptance to their third counterpart's decision and looked out in the distance for several seconds before they left the final person by himself.

Naruto 3.0 quickly looked to his right when he heard a loud 'SNAP' sound out and he went wide eyed in disbelief at what he saw. It was, an anomaly of some sort, to him it looked like a hole had literally been torn open in the atmosphere. The other Naruto's gave him one last look from over their shoulder, the zombified Naruto gave him a two fingered salute before both he and the first stepped through.

The hole closed behind them leaving Naruto by himself. He didn't know how long he had been standing in the same spot for but to him it felt like hours. Shaking his head the blonde inhaled and exhaled before getting himself as far away from this place as possible.

He never noticed a red scarf hanging from the entry way to the facility, following the wind as he walked away. It certainly wasn't there when the three Naruto's walked out of it...


	2. Chapter 2

Primis

Chapter 1

 _'Before the fall of the old world there was a war. This war, if lost, would have spelled the end of humanity. Four Legendary Heroes rose up against the enemy wielding weapons of unimaginable power and when the war was won, it came at a cost: the fall of the old world. And the deaths of the four heroes. Old remnants, fragments, of the old world can be found. But most if not all are inoperable...'_

In a town several people crowded around a body of a middle aged man that looked like he was mauled to death by a bear. His facial expression permanently frozen to show pure utter terror. His throat was torn out and from his collarbone down to his stomach was ripped open and emptied of its contents.

"This is getting out of hand. This is the third death we've had this week!" a man was greying hair and a receding hairline growled.

"Causing a panic won't do anyone any good." another man replied before he made a face as he gave the body a look over. "This is unlike anything I had seen. I don't think we're dealing with a common Yoma."

"What makes you think that?" the first man replied.

"Yoma's usually eat entrails when they kill." answered the second man who then gestured at the mutilated body. "But every single body we found has met a similar fate to him: torn throat, ripped open torso and the missing organs..." he listed before sighing tiredly. "It will be best if no one is by themselves until this situation is resolved."

Observing the scene an ears difference away is a 17 year old man wearing a brown tunic with a white under shirt brown trousers and shoes. A black cloak like poncho with a hood over his head and a pouch with a huge amount of hold in it. What was almost unnoticed is the glowing reddish-orange blood vial hanging from the belt of his trousers, just out of sight thanks to the poncho like cloak he was wearing.

Naruto Namikaze had been keeping to himself for the past month ever since he had been freed from captivity, and ever since he had been wandering around to keep himself one step ahead of the people his parents sold him too. He never stayed in one place for too long.

However he had just gotten here a day ago and this is the first time he ever came across this kind of situation. And despite being in this foreign land for an entire month he has no idea what these 'yoma' are either.

And there's the smell in the air. It was disgusting. If he had to compare it to something then it would be metallic and rotten. And it was close by too.

A prominent frown pulling at his lips Naruto sniffed the air and coughed in disgust. Then he caught something from the corner of his eye and he turned half way to look at it.

A shadow picturing a big, burly and muscular humanoid on top of a building. Frowning Naruto turned to look up at it completely and grew wide eyed. Deathly pale grey and decaying skin. Elongated limb with parts of the muscle and bone visible. Dark red glowing eyes, and razor sharp teeth and claws matted with dried blood. Half of its face was ripped off and its torso was half torn open showing its insides that were halfway from hanging out.

It was swaying unsteadily from side to side as it looked for its next victim. And its gaze was mainly focused on the crowd that was around the body. Inhaling and exhaling Naruto tore his eyes off of the dead creature and slowly walked over to the assembled crowd; he was able to pick up the end of the conversation.

"-sent a message to the Organization and they've sent two two Claymore's to take care of our yoma problem." the second man said.

"What?! We don't need those freaks of nature Derek! We can handle this ourselves!" the first man fiercely exclaimed.

"And this problem has gotten way beyond our control Simon." Derek calmly replied and he pinched the bridge of his nose tiredly as he added, "At the rate we're going this entire town will be empty within a few months. We need their help."

Simon took a deep breath and exhaled. His shoulders slumping in defeat. "When will they arrive?" he questioned.

"The mayor sent word a few days ago. They should be here any moment now." that was when Derek noticed Naruto standing beside them and strange attire aside, he greeted the teenager with a welcome smile. "Ah. A newcomer? I'm sorry you had to see this-"

He was abruptly stopped from finishing his sentence when Naruto raised his hand. "Whatever you do. Do. Not. Look up behind you." he warned bringing his arm down to his side.

Derek frowned in concern but Simon was the one who was looking at him with distrust. "Why shouldn't we?"

Naruto glanced at him from under the cowl of his hood. "Because I am pretty damn sure that the thing killing your people is on the roof behind you looking down on us."

Common sense would dictate that a person would take a warning seriously. However because Simon distrusted Naruto he had disregarded his warning completely and looked up at the roof behind him.

That was when he saw it and in a panic he screamed in a frightened panic while pointing at the being looking down on them. "YOMA!"

That was when all hell went loose. Everyone looked up at where Simon was pointing and screamed in terror when they saw it. The identified yoma threw his head back and let out an inhuman screech in response, before leaping off the roof and down to the ground with the crowd around the corpse being its destination.

Acting quick Naruto shoved Derek away and leapt back just as the yoma landed on the ground. It roared in challenge at the first person it saw: Naruto Namikaze; everyone else meanwhile got the hell out of dodge screaming their heads off and leaving Naruto to fend for himself.

Naruto summed up what he thought of the yoma in seven words.

"Ugly son of a bitch, aren't you?" Naruto sneered as he stared the undead yoma directly in the eye.

The undead Yoma in question roared in response as it charged the blond human blindly, giving in to its primitive drive of hunger.

X.X.X.X

Meanwhile just outside of the town were two women. They wore a uniform that consisted of a light grey two-piece tight-skin suit, with a mock-neck dickie marked with an symbol near the base of the throat. Over top of that, were several pieces of plate armour: shin-high, slightly heeled metal sabatons, large vambraces on their wrists, shoulder pauldrons on their shoulders and a fauld on their waist. And lastly they wore a short grey cape that reached their mid-back.

On their backs was a single large Claymore sword. This wouldn't be out of place if it weren't for two striking features: their silver eyes and unnatural pale platinum blonde hair. One had an almost stoic look on her face while the other had a grin with a partially eaten apple in her hand.

These are Helen and Deneve, the so called 'Silver Eyed Witches' or as they're more commonly known as by the populace they were created to protect 'Claymore'

Helen took a chunk out of the apple. "Hmph. So this is the place the yoma is lurking in eh?" she said with a bored air around her.

Deneve nodded. "Yes. This one is reported to be particularly vicious."

Helen glanced at her friend from the corner of her eye, "How so?" she wasn't really paying attention to their handler at the time.

"Weren't you paying attention?" the short-haired hybrid questioned her friend. At the woman's sheepish look, Deneve sighed. Typical. "There may be a possible voracious eater given the brutality this town has apparently reported. Be on alert."

When they entered the town they quickly discovered the streets to be deserted. The two hybrids shared a look before they ventured deeper.

They quickly reached for the hilt of their claymore when they heard someone yelling and they saw a young man wearing a hooded poncho like cloak, thrown into their view. Helen and Deneve were alarmed when they heard an inhuman screech and watched as the man cursed loudly as he rolled away. That was when they saw it.

It had the appearance of a common yoma; grey skin and elongated limb, razor sharp teeth and claws. However that was where the similarities ended. It's skin was pale grey and decaying. It had parts of its muscle and bone visible. He had dark red and glowing eyes instead of yellow and half its face was ripped off, showing the skull and the interior of its mouth. And its torso was half torn open showing parts of its insides that were hanging out.

It wasn't focused on them as it didn't notice them. The undead yoma had its attention entirely on the young man. It hunched forward as it roared before charging at the hooded man.

As the undead Yoma attacked the human both hybrids stood in place, in complete shock and surprise.

"Deneve..." Helen started.

"Yeah?" Deneve answered.

"Was that a...?" Helen continued only to trail off at the end with a great amount of uncertainty.

"-dead yoma?" her friend answered for her. "Yes. It was."

Helen looked at Deneve with wide eyes and asked in a harsh whisper, "How the fuck is there a dead yoma!?"

Her friend had no idea. But if they didn't act now, they would condemn a human to death. An act just as bad as killing a human. Naruto was doing a fairly good job at dodging and weaving through the zombies attacks. It helped it wasn't intelligent beyond its basic primal instincts. So it's attacks were predicable and therefore easy to avoid.

He dodged a swipe and tripped on his own feet falling down on his butt. He looked up and made a panicked face when the dead yoma lunged its hand forward. He quickly leaned to the side and rolled out of the way, before back peddling away from it.

"Geez...I wish I had a weapon to fend off this thing." he said.

As if answering his call Naruto felt something appear in his palm. He looked down and was taken aback at what he saw. A mechanical looking European Sword that was 7 inches long. The yoma froze as it saw the sword appear and rapidly backed away, hissing in fear.

"Ancients Wrath! Primis!" it hatefully growled and hissed.

Naruto quickly got to his feet and stared warily at the undead being. Ancients Wrath? Primis? Who or what are they? But before he could ask, two people appeared behind the yoma with their claymores drawn. Purple blood dirtied the blade. The undead yoma collapsed in a spray of purple blood. But it's hateful glowing red eyes never left him.

Then it was impaled through the head and the red glowing eyes finally died down.

Helen and Deneve sheathed their blades and stared at the young man. While they couldn't see much of his face because of the hood concealing the majority of it, they were able to tell he was quite young. In his late teens to early twenties if they had to guess.

"You okay?" Deneve asked.

"...Peachy." his answer was flat. Only for him to feel a sudden weight on his shoulders that took him because surprise. "Jeez!" he was startled because the person responsible was Helen, who suddenly appeared by his side leaning against him with her arm over his shoulder.

She had a massive cheerful grin on her face, "Hi."

"Hi?" he slowly looked her over as if she were an enigma much to her amusement. It was like he never saw a hybrid before. "I have never seen someone with your features before."

Helen cocked her head to the side and regarded him with curiosity, "What do you mean by that?"

"Your hair and eyes. I never saw silver eyes or the shade of blonde hair you and your...friend has?" he trailed off uncertainly. "Sorry if I am being rude."

"You're not being rude. Don't worry about it." said Helen who brushed off his apology. She wasn't offended at all by his observation she found his curious and unafraid observation refreshing to be honest.

Deneve however was intrigued with him; he didn't show fear or unease when around them and that sword of his, it's clearly foreign in its make and design. She never saw anything like it. And it appeared in his hand as well without any prompt or warning.

"That's a fancy looking sword you got there." Helen said as she finally took notice of Ancients Wrath. Naruto brought it up and looked it over with curiosity. "Where'd you get it?" she asked as she admired its quality and build.

The hooded Namikaze shrugged cluelessly to her curiosity, "I actually have no idea. It just appeared in my hand... I wonder how I can make it go away...?" he murmured towards the end; Helen was about to ask what he meant by that only for her words to die on the tip of her tongue when Ancients Wrath disappeared before her their very eyes.

Deneve did a double take she was so surprised.

Wanting to test something out Naruto focused on the sword appearing and disappearing from his hand. And to his internal glee the sword appeared and disappeared from his hand. Multiple times. He took it a step further by tossing it aside and focus on having the sword back in hand. The sword dematerialised in mid-air and reappeared in his hand.

This ability would be useful if he ever found himself in a fight.

Although that begged the question: what happened that caused him to have this ability? The only thing of significance that happened to him was a month ago with his lookalikes. It could just be a coincidence though.

"That's... what are you?" Helen was wide eyed and looking at him as if he were something other than human. Understandable considering the only in-humans she knows are hybrids such as herself and Deneve, yoma's and voracious eaters/awakened beings.

"He's no yoma that's for sure." Deneve said as she finally closed the distance between them.

"He's no voracious eater either." Helen added before she leaned down to look Naruto in the eyes and was surprised to see he's a young man. Not even in his twenties. She straightened up and looked at her best friend. "What should we do in regards to this kid?" she asked, gesturing to Naruto with her head and promptly tightened her arm around his shoulder to stop him from thinking any thoughts on getting away.

As they hushedly discussed what they should do Naruto was looking between them. He was both worried and confused. He had no idea what they were talking about. There were a few names thrown around, such as Miria and Clare, and something about keeping him away from the Organization. All in all what they were saying was going over his head but he got the gist of it.

This Organization – real original that - they wanted to keep him away from them. The vibe he was getting about them from these women, the people belonging to the organization were shady as fuck and not trustworthy.

This Miria person on the other hand is someone who is trustworthy and from the vibe he was getting from these women again, she apparently has a vendetta against the nameless organization. He has no idea why and it's not any of his business but he is not going to be used. By anyone.

Then something caught his attention. The corpse a bit back behind Deneve was twitching.

"Ladies." they stopped talking and looked at Naruto who then pointed behind Deneve. "Is it just me or is that body twitching?"

They looked in the direction he pointed just as the body, in a defiance of gravity and logic, raised himself from the ground. He was floating a foot from the ground twitching and spasming.

"The hell?!" dropping her arm to the side Helen and Deneve shared a look before they both unsheathed their claymores.

At that moment the zombie stopped twitching and spasming and hunched forward before he snapped his head up, glaring at them with familiar glowing red eyes.

"That's not normal." Naruto said with a disgusted frown.

The zombified yoma roared and surprised the trio when it teleported to Naruto before grabbing him by the shoulders. Naruto cursed as the two hybrids quickly turned to face it but before they could do anything both the zombie and Naruto were teleported again.

"Shit!" Helen cursed.

They were about to head off and track them down when the zombie and Naruto came back. Naruto on one knee with Ancients Wrath out and blocking the yoma's sharp claws that were intent on tearing into him.

The hybrids ran over to save the boy only the zombie teleported itself and Naruto away when they got too close, and reappear a distance away, with the zombie and Naruto in a different and potentially lethal position.

Helen and Deneve were so focused they never noticed the yoma didn't use yoki when it teleported. Or for anything when they arrived really.

When they got too close the yoma teleported the human and itself away. And when they reappeared Naruto is trying to slash the zombified yoma. He struck true but the pain didn't registrar to the yoma who grabbed him by the shoulders and tried to take a chunk out of him. Baring his teeth when he felt the sharp clawed nails dig into his skin, Naruto grabbed the yoma by the throat with his free hand to keep it from tearing a chunk of skin from his bones.

They were teleported away again when Helen and Deneve got too close and reappeared once more. Naruto ducked under a particularly slow swipe from the yoma and retaliated by slashing at its back. He was surprised when the blade suddenly went alight in blue flames and the zombified yoma bellowed out in pain when the blade sliced through its rotting flesh with ease.

"Woah!" the young man exclaimed with surprise, back peddling away and looked at the blade in stunned awe. Then he smirked as it registered in his mind that his attacks were finally causing harm to the beast. "Ha! Got you! This teleportation crap is getting annoying."

"Primis!" the undead beast hissed and groaned before it turned to face Naruto and teleported them both away again when Helen and Deneve got too close.

"Dammit!" Helen cursed when the yoma teleported itself and the young man away from them, yet again. "Deneve this is getting us nowhere!"

"I know." Deneve was grim; she looked at her friend and added, "We have to take this slowly." she frowned suddenly when her mind registered what the yoma had said, and looked at her friend to see if she also heard it, "Was it just me or did that dead yoma say 'Primis' when looking at him?"

Helen shook her head. "No. I heard it too."

Naruto and the zombie reappeared on top of a building with the former sliding along the ground when the latter backhanded him on the chest. This time Naruto's hood was lowered and he didn't bother putting it back up as he got to his feet.

"Okay. I'm getting annoyed with you." he stated and the blade ignited with blue flames once more. "I'm finishing this." he was taken aback when he saw Helen and Deneve appear above the yoma from its flank and threw their claymores at the undead beast.

The two blades bisected the yoma before it could react by the waist and chest, severing the zombie's upper and lower arms. The yoma collapsed on the roof in pieces as the blades embedded itself into the surface of the roof. Naruto let out a breath of relief. He was capable of defending himself, mind you, but he'd rather not fight another one of those things again if he can help it. Naruto was the type that avoided trouble if he can, but it always seems to find him first.

As Helen and Deneve landed on the roof the teenager noticed that the beast was down but not out. It was still alive. He needed to take care of that before it somehow recovers from its current state. He walked over and ran the zombie's head through with the flame ignited blade. He pulled the blade out and watched as the zombie yoma went up in blue flames. Burning until there was nothing left of it, yet, somehow the fire stayed in one place. He wasn't going to question it.

Sighing Naruto willed the blade away and it did.

Helen and Deneve walked over, yanking their claymore's from the roof and sheathing it before turning their gaze to Naruto.

"Are you okay?" Helen asked and she kept her surprise on discovering Naruto being a kid of all things well hidden.

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine," the teen waved her concern off. "What the hell was that thing?"

Helen and Deneve were surprised. "You don't know?"

"Judging by your reaction, I'm gonna assume those things are common here?" The way he said 'here' seemed to imply what Deneve thinks he means.

The pixie-haired woman shared a look with her friend, before it was Helen who answered his previous question. "They're called Yoma, and yeah they're pretty common. Well, except that one we just killed."

Naruto rubbed the back of his head with a small frown. "Huh. Been here for a month and that's the first time I ever saw them."

"'Been here'?" the short haired woman said with a confused frown. "You're not from around here?"

Naruto shook his head from side to side. "No. I came from across the sea on another continent. I was sold to some men in black by my parents. I woke up in a building where they were going to cut me open. Got out of there a month ago and been wandering around ever sense." he kept some things to himself; like the fact he was rescued by two other versions of himself.

"Men..." Helen trailed off.

"In black...?" Deneve finished. The two friends shared a worrisome look when the kid nodded in the affirmative. That sounded a lot like their handlers.

"If my memory serves me well, yeah. I don't know where they held me exactly, just that it looked like a desert wasteland." in that there was a lot of rocky hills and barely any vegetation and flora around. There were a few trees but not much.

If they had any scepticism before it was long gone now. Back in the Paburo mountains Miria had a few suspicions that the Organization isn't all they portray themselves to be. And here in front of them they had living breathing proof of it. This boy was all the validation needed to confirm the urban legend widely believed by both human and Claymore alike that the organization kidnaps children for future soldiers.

There were some who did not believe this of course. But it turns out the ones who did were right all along. And if he managed to get away and has been on the move for the past month, then the Organization would be hunting for him. The hybrids shared a look again and came to an decision. This boy cannot be captured. At any and all costs.

Deneve gave herself a mental note to inform Miria of this the next time she sees the woman. She would be interested in this, no doubt.

"Hey, kid, why don't you come with us? For your safety. There's someone that would like to know more about your little story," Helen grinned as she leaned her elbow on the hooded teen's shoulder, much to his slight annoyance at the contact.

Naruto contemplated the woman's words, mulling it over. Well it's not like he has anywhere to go specifically, but if things like that Yoma were going to be common encounters...

Fortunately for his hesitation, Deneve spoke for him, "Don't be ridiculous Helen, we can't take him with us. Need I remind you our destination after this job, which I might add is now complete?"

"Well, yeah, but he can hold his own. It's not like we'll be baby sitting him half the time."

"Where we're going we are not going to be fighting yoma." Deneve pointed out. "How do we know he's going to be able to take care of himself?"

"Considering he held his own against that dead - well re-dead yoma? I'd say he can look after himself." Helen answered with confidence.

Deneve was in no mood to argue with her friend, and relented with a sigh before her headache can grow. "Fine, but if anything happens to him, it will be on you."

Helen waved her off, "He'll be completely fine! Won't you kid?"

Naruto gave her a look and shrugged. "As long as there's no y'know, dead whatever those are, where ever you're going, sure." And speaking of, the young man voiced his inquiry "hey, where are we going anyway?"

"Up north. Better bring something warm, kiddo."

"Or warmer," Helen added seeing his hooded getup.

"Ugh. Cold. My one weakness."

Helen sniggered and grabbed him by the shoulder. "Hold on tight." she said singingly.

"What do you meEEAAAAAAN!?" Naruto asked before he screamed out in fright when Helen suddenly jumped off the roof with him. Deneve shook her head at her friends antics and followed them down.

"A little warning next time please!" cried out an indignant Naruto.

"It wasn't that bad."

"Not that bad?! You jumped off a roof!"

"Besides, I did warn you," Helen gave the teen in her arms an amused grin.

Naruto blushed, but continued on anyway, "W-well, give a better one next time! Actually scratch that, never again! I can walk on my own feet thank you!"

"Okay!" and she cheerfully dropped Naruto down on the floor.

Naruto landed on his butt. He blinked for a few moments. "...Ouch." he said underwhelmingly.

"Are you two finished acting like children?" Deneve shook her head at the two.

"It's not me! It's her!" Naruto pointed an accusing finger at the sniggering Helen.

The short-haired woman sighed. What did she get herself into? It was almost like having another Helen around. "Come on you two." she called to them as she made her way out of the village. Helen looked at Naruto shrugged and followed after her.

Sighing Naruto quickly got to his feet and went after them.


	3. Chapter 3

Primis

Chapter 2

 _'The name of the ancient enemy to the Legendary Heroes has been forgotten to time. But the name of their ally was not. They were simply known as "Keepers" beings who are tasked with the preservation of the living world. Powerful beings with unparalleled power just at the tip of their fingers. Crossing the Keepers is a quick way to get yourself killed.'_

Naruto was keeping himself calm despite the gravity of the situation. Snow was everywhere; the wind was biting cold. Helen and Deneve were nowhere around, having gone in to that walled city nearly a day ago. And in front of him was a three headed, four armed tentacle abomination that had more teeth than those yoma's Helen and Deneve informed him about.

So he was alone. By himself in a dire situation.

His sword was ineffective against it. It just bounced off its hide. It was so thick not even the blue flame could cut through. It was like it was invulnerable or something! He was fast enough to avoid the spiked tentacles however but there were a few close calls.

The decision he took after facing those facts was understandable: he ran. And he was heading towards that city in the distance.

He just wished he had a weapon that could take it down from long range!

It was then he found the grip in his hand had changed to something else and when he looked down he was surprised to find it was a bow that looked to be made out of bone like material. Still running he pulled back the string and was surprised, yet again, but an flame tipped arrow appeared between his thumb, fore and middle fingers.

He's not going to complain. He turned halfway around to aim the bow and let loose. And the arrow exploded when it impacted the monster.

"Holy shit!" he exclaimed; he was dismayed however when the three headed beast was seemingly unharmed by the blast. But it looked irritated if its roar was anything to go by. So repeating his action, Naruto let loose and fired arrow after arrow, pelting the beast with explosive shrapnel. But like before it didn't do anything except annoy it. It didn't even leave a mark on its hide!

Just then another being appeared beside Naruto taking him by complete surprise. It was unlike anything he had ever seen before. It was unearthly. It had large sharp teeth and no visible eyes, similar to the creature chasing after him and has three clawed fingers on each hand. It was levitating. It was wearing dark red robes with gold embroidery, a hood and a symbol proudly displayed on its chest; a circle with four ends jutting out, making the left and right sides, including up and down; the symbol of The Keepers.

It followed beside him, looking him over as if sizing him up. Before it's eyeless gaze landed on the Bow in his hands. It opened its mouth and hissed; but for some reason Naruto just...knew...that it wasn't out of malice or anger.

It grabbed Naruto's shoulder and the two of them vanished in a ball of light. The beast followed after them in the same manner.

X.X.X.X

Eliza stood outside in the biting cold wind as a lookout. She didn't feel the cold thanks to her being a hybrid. Nor could she get sick. Her task for the moment was to keep an eye out for any approaching awakened beings and to alert Miria, the acting leader of this suicide mission when they make their move.

So far she detected no approaching yoki but kept her guard up.

Then suddenly a ball of light appeared, startled and alarmed, Eliza reflexively reached for her claymore. It was to her surprise that a hooded poncho wearing young man, wielding a bow of unknown material, stumbled out of it.

He wildly looked around for a moment before his gaze landed on her. Pushing her surprise to the side, Eliza focused on the more prominent problem.

"Who are you? How did you get here? What was that?" she demanded; they did not need this right now! There was an impending battle on its way and it can happen at any moment! They did not need to look after a human during such a conflict!

The cowl wearing young man was about to reply only to get interrupted by two more orbs of light. With one of them being much bigger than the other.

A robe wearing monster appeared and quickly floated over to the young man. Eliza bared her teeth in fright at the mere sight of it; what on Earth was thAT THING?!

Then another creature appeared from the larger orb. A four spiked, tentacle armed abomination with three heads, that are made up of teeth than anything else. And it towered menacingly over the three of them.

"Oh for fucks sake!" the young man cursed, before turning tail and running away as it went for him. The robed monster – because that's what it was in her eyes - didn't bother looking at the silver eyed, and pale blonde haired woman as it followed the young man.

Eliza on the other hand quickly ran inside the building to inform her comrades of the problem.

X.X.X.X

"Captain! There's a problem outside!"

Miria stood to her feet immediately, on high alert as she reached for her claymore. "Have they launched their first wave already?!"

The warrior, Eliza, who had barged in the debriefing room shook her head, panting. "No, it's something else!"

Just then everyone in the room heard the unholy roar that could he heard for miles around. Followed by an annoyed, "Oh shut the hell up!" from a young man which two warriors in the room recognised which followed by an explosion one after the other.

Deneve and Helen exchanged looks, the former looking mildly irritated and the latter worried when they heard him yelling in pain. The shorter haired of the duo sighed. "I can safely say 'I told you so', Helen."

"You two know who that is?" Miria questioned with a stern frown.

At her superior and friend's question, Deneve nodded. "Yes, he is the one I spoke of earlier."

Miria nodded at the explanation. "I see. Well let's get out there and keep him alive, I want answers after all this."

Moments after those words left her mouth an orb of light appeared in the middle of the room. Everyone reached for their swords hilt in preparation for a potential enemy. They were surprised when they found an injured Naruto falling out of it on to his hands and knees, clutching his blood stained abdomen; he was grasping at something. With a pained grunt and a yell he pulled out a wicked looking spike from his gut, spurting blood from the open wound and on to the floor, before he carelessly tossed it to the side.

Helen was about to go over to him only to stop when another ball of light appeared in the room directly beside Naruto. The robed monster from before emerged from it and started floating around the wounded teen protectively. A small ball of electricity floating in the middle of its weaving clawed hands.

Panting Naruto summoned the bow, Wrath of the Ancients, to his hand and used it to get himself up.

"Stupid three headed monster..." he painfully groaned, before turning to the robed creature. "I don't suppose you speak English do you?" all he got was a hiss from the eyeless creature; he shrugged, "Worth a try."

"What on Earth is that thing?!"

"I can't feel any Yoki..."

The women muttered in bewilderment, watching the scene unfold before their very eyes.

"Engage! Don't just stand there!" Miria barked, readying her weapon as she herself prepared to attack the robed monster.

Naruto and the robed monster stared at the women as they charged at the latter with their claymore's ready. His companion stared at them from under its cowl, completely calm and unconcerned before raising its hand at them. All the women in the room froze in place and were unable to move their own limbs.

"Wait!" Naruto yelled getting its attention, much to the women's astonishment. "Don't hurt them! Please?"

It hissed and reluctantly lowered its arm and the hybrids found themselves able to move again. The robed monster hovered itself behind Naruto and started looking around the room, as if searching for something.

Naruto looked at it from over his shoulder; he knew what it was looking for, the three headed monster.

"Naruto," the hooded blonde looked at Helen who was slowly walking over to him. "what is that thing? It's not a yoma."

"No idea, but it's friendly enough. I think." Naruto shrugged tiredly, truthfully he was a bit unnerved at its appearance but so far so good. It made no moves to bring him harm after it teleported him away from the thing twice, and that was enough in his book.

" **Keeper..."** he heard a voice say in plain English.

"Wha-" he slowly looked at the robed monster.

" **That is what I am. My species. We are called Keeper."** it replied.

"I thought you couldn't speak English."

" **I cannot. Your memories give voice to my words. It is how only you can understand me."**

"Oh. Okay then." he didn't know what to say to that, other than, well, that.

"You can understand it? All we're hearing is hissing." Deneve questioned him and that was when Naruto realised that everyone was giving him odd looks.

"Yeah." Naruto answered with a nod. "It calls itself a Keeper. That's the name of its species."

"A Keeper?" Miria was staring at the robed monster with wide eyes. "Does that mean you know about Primis? The Four Legendary Heroes of the Old World?"

"So that's what 'Primis' means...I had no idea what it meant," Naruto admitted, scratching his cheek hidden beneath his hood.

 **"I have known the four all those years ago. They were our allies against our most hated enemy."** the Keeper looked at Naruto who was relaying what it was saying to the hybrids, and added, **"When you used the Wrath of the Ancients, a weapon of the Old World, imagine my surprise that I found you, battling one of the hated enemy."**

"That three headed thing is your enemy?!" Naruto exclaimed in pure shock after he realised what the Keeper had just said.

" **Yes."** the keeper replied. **"And there are bigger, more dangerous ones."**

"Oh crap. Whoa..." Naruto stumbled unsteadily and had to use the bow to keep himself from keeling over. The amount of blood he was losing is starting to make him feel really light headed. It made it difficult to focus on the task at hand.

" **You are injured. You are no longer in any condition to fight"** the Keeper stated the obvious.

"Thanks for pointing out of obvious Keeper." Naruto deadpan snarkered; he started to sway and Helen appeared by his side, with his arm over her shoulder to hold him up. He made the bow disappear so his acquaintance would have an easier time carrying him. "I don't suppose you have anything that can heal injuries?"

" **I do."** The Keeper threw its arm out to the left wall and everyone saw a small, dark turquoise and white painted contraption appear out of thin air. " **The four called them 'perks' and they grant abilities to help you survive. This one heals you of all wounds no matter how severe they are and it helps you heal your companions quicker."** it left out only a few people are capable of utilising them though; but it knew the teenager can use them though.

Naruto looked at the machine with wide eyes. "No kidding? Helen, help me over there would you?"

"Erm, sure?" feeling more than a little uncertain Helen helped Naruto over to the machine. She watched her footing so her feet would not slip on his blood.

The other hybrids watched as the hooded teen leaned against the contraption. Damping his bottom lip Naruto looked it over to find a way to get it to work. He saw a coin slot on the front; figuring it wouldn't hurt to press the button that would slid the coin inside, he went and did just that.

"You need a little revive! Yeah!" everyone except for the Keeper was surprised when they heard a man singing.

Then a glass bottle with blue liquid inside of it popped out of the top. Sharing a look with Helen, Naruto sighed and grabbed the bottle, undid the top and downed the entire thing without stopping. He gagged in dislike at the taste it left on his tongue, "Ack, it tastes like raw fish!"

"Naruto," Helen breathed, surprised, and he looked where she was pointing and to his astonishment found that his wound was sealing itself up. Almost like regeneration. "it's healing."

"I'll be damned." he poked his finger through the hole in his clothing and felt unblemished skin. He was fixed up in seconds.

"That's impossible! He's not a hybrid like us! Nor a yoma. He shouldn't be able to regenerate!"

"That liquid he got from that thing must be the cause of it."

While the women muttered in disbelief Naruto turned to the Keeper. There's still the problem with the monster who's surprisingly hard to kill.

"Keeper, how do I kill that thing? It's invulnerable as far as I know." since only Naruto could understand it no one could tell what it was saying. All they heard was hissing. Nevertheless Naruto understood the Keeper and was astonished and really irritated at what he had been told. "Really? That's it?"

The Keeper nodded and Naruto groaned out of annoyance. If it were that easy then he could have taken it down by himself. For fucks sake!

Summoning the Wrath of the Ancients Naruto with irritated grumblings made his way out of the briefing room and into the outside where the three headed monster was waiting for him. The other hybrids looked at Miria for instructions, though Helen looked like she was barely holding herself back from dragging him back in.

Miria closed her eyes, sighed and followed after the young man. "Come on. Let's see what he's going to do. If he needs help we bail him out of trouble."

All twenty three women followed Miria out, although one hybrid with a pageboy styled hair had stayed close to Helen and Deneve. Both of them know who this woman is; they were with her on one of their awakened beings hunts in the Paburo Mountains, Clare and she is one of the few half-awakened hybrids.

"When did you meet him?" Clare asked.

"On our previous assignment. It was a weird one too." Helen replied, much to the interest of Clare.

She pageboy haired woman glanced at her from the corner of her eye, "Really?"

It was Deneve who answered and even she was still stumped on what she saw. "We encountered a yoma unlike any other. It was more of a rotting, walking corpse than anything." she said, much to Clare's astonishment and disbelief. A walking corpse? Were they serious?

Oh god they are, Clare realised.

"And it was moving so fast we could barely keep up with it." Helen continued. "It was mainly focused on him though. Kept saying Primis as well for some reason."

When the 24 women walked outside it to the sound of an inhuman roar they heard before. That was when they saw the abomination for the very first time. Her eyes steeling themselves Miria instinctively reached for her claymore upon seeing it, as did the other women.

It towered over everyone that was assembled. It's four spiked tentacle arms slithered and weaved through the air; its three mouthes opened and closed as green acid like liquid seeped out from its maws and onto the snow.

"My god! What is that thing!?"

"It has no yoki. Like the Keeper..."

The women said lowly as they did not want to bring its attention on to them. While the abomination isn't as big as some of the Awakened Beings they encountered in the past it was just as intimidating and threatening. And they remembered him saying it was invulnerable.

"I'll call you Margwa." Naruto casually said, and as the named Margwa bellowed out in mindless anger, the Wrath of the Ancients materialised in his right hand. The hooded blonde stopped and pulled back the string, a light blue flame tipped arrow appearing notched on it. "Come on. Make my day you three mouthed fucker."

The Margwa opened its mouths to let out a loud bellowing roar. This quickly became a mistake on its part when Naruto let the flame tipped arrow loose. It struck home, managing to enter one of the three mouths. The Margwa roared in agony as the arrow exploded, taking off one of its three heads in a display of green blood, scales, skull fragments and brain matter. That same agonised roar quickly became one of anger and it chased after Naruto in retaliation.

The person in question was quick to realise the Margwa was running a lot faster than before. So he kept his distance from it. The memory of getting struck by one of its arm tentacles was on the forefront of his mind and he is not fancying another incident like that again.

The silver eyed women who were watching all jumped at the unexpected explosion; Miria however was analysing the bow. It was far from ordinary that much was obvious. The mineral used to make it is one she is unable to discern. She never heard of any metals with properties the bow has. If she had then the chances of the organisation using it for their own ill gotten goals and gains would be statistically higher than they were now.

The Margwa kept its remaining mouths closed as it closed in on Naruto with a vengeance. To its frustration and anger however the hooded teen kept his distance from it. It opened one of its mouths to let out a roar and Naruto capitalised on it the second he saw the opening. He quickly turned around and fired an arrow. Unfortunately for him the arrow missed its intended target and whistled past one of the tentacle arms, where it exploded on impact upon connecting with the ground.

"Dammit!" he quickly pulled the bowstring, getting another flame tipped arrow to appear, took careful aim this time and let it loose. Unlike the previous failed attempt the arrow struck true and the second head met the same fate as the first.

The Margwa roared as its second head was blown off. It got even more angry, even more faster. It couldn't take another one of those. Naruto knew the intel he had been given by the Keeper was right. The open mouths were its weakness.

While the Margwa was angry it was also unfocused and is unsurprisingly bleeding profoundly. All it could think about is catching up to the pest of a human and sink its teeth into his flesh, and rip him to bloody pieces!

Naruto sprinted away to his distance and waited for it to open its third and final mouth. All while under the watchful eyes of 24 women. All of them were watching in either awe, or were impressed on how he was handling the creature by himself. But they were prepared to intervene if it looked like he was about to die or get hurt though.

When the final mouth of the Margwa opened Naruto stopped running and took aim with the bow. He launched the arrow and it struck home with its target. The final head exploded in a gruesome display and the Margwa stumbled back on its feet from the shockwave of the explosion before falling on its back dead.

Switching Wrath of the Ancients out for Ancients Wrath, the Namikaze slowly approached the corpse with Miria and the others making their way over as well. He moved one of its bigger tentacle arms with his foot and to his relief it didn't respond.

"So he can take care of himself." he heard Deneve say, with Helen cheerfully adding, "See Deneve! I told you so!"

One of the hybrids, a young woman with pigtailed hair, walked over and gave the corpse an analytic look over. "So you kill it by destroying the heads?" she looked at Naruto.

"Yeah. It's pretty much invulnerable anywhere else." Naruto answered and made the blade disappear. The women, excluding Helen and Deneve, were a little put out. They're not use to – in their eyes - a frontal display of magic. "Before the Keeper and I got here, I fired several of those arrows at it. It didn't leave a scratch."

"If they are able to shrug off attacks like that then how are we suppose to fight them if its friends decide to show themselves?" a rather muscular women with two claymore's asked with a deep frown.

"As long as you go for their heads when the mouths are open you should be fine." he answered with a shrug. "I recommend using ranged attacks. Getting hit by those spiked tentacles is not a pleasant experience." he added, rubbing where he got hit. He can still feel it. It was more of a phantom pain now.

"So now that the...Margwa is dead, what are you going to do now?" it was Miria who asked that.

Sighing Naruto rubbed the back of his neck through his hood. "I'm going to try and make my way back outside." he informed her.

Helen went wide eyed and immediately protested against that course of action. Knowing what is beyond those walls she knew going out there would be a death sentence for him. "No! Absolutely not!"

Everyone was surprised at Helen's fierce outburst, but none more than Naruto himself who turned to look at her. "What? Why not?" he asked; he couldn't see the problem in getting out of their hair. They would have one less problem to deal with if he was gone.

"Helen is right Naruto." Deneve said. "It's not safe beyond the city walls anymore."

"I know that."

Helen and Deneve shared a look and looked back to Naruto. "...You do?" Helen asked.

"I may not know much about you women, because, you know, being foreigner and all that." Naruto promptly ignored the confused looks and mutterings he got from those who weren't in the know on him being from another continent. "But having 24 of you in one place? Either you're having a meeting – which is unlikely – or you're here to prevent something. I'm betting it's the latter." he looked over his shoulder towards the city walls. "The way you're against me going outside, and that this city is practically abandoned makes me more certain it's the latter. And if I stay here, not only will you have to deal with whatever problem you were sent here to take care of, you also have to protect me." he turned away from the wall and leaned forward as he looked at Helen, "So what do you prefer? Having to look after me while you're also fighting a problem here. Or letting me go beyond the city walls, so you don't have to look after me?"

"If you were to go outside you would be a much easier target for the voracious eaters that are waiting." the pigtailed woman beside him politely pointed out and now that Naruto was thinking on her words she added, "If you were here however then they would be more focused on us."

"But I would also be in the crossfire. Not to mention you girls already have your hands full." he pointed out to her.

"Cynthia does have a point." Naruto looked at the woman who spoke; she had her hair tied back in a tight ponytail.

"Thank you Veronica." Cynthia said.

Veronica nodded to her friend and looked at Naruto with crossed arms. "Going outside is a death sentence. For you and for us." she began with grim eyes. "And while I may not know much of the Old World, what I do know is that the Keepers are powerful beings. Having one of them here with us would give us all a better chance of surviving."

Hearing that Naruto looked at the Keeper who was still on the sidelines watching them converse.

"If you're as powerful as she says you are, then how come you had me fight that thing?" Naruto demanded.

" **It was a test."** it answered.

"A test?"

The Keeper nodded. **"Yes. And you succeeded."**

Naruto sighed and gave the Keeper a flat look from under his hood. "I am going to take a guess and say, you wanted to see if I could kill the Margwa by myself?"

The Keeper nodded and Naruto, he merely exhaled with a great amount of exasperation. Right. The whole thing was a test. Well. It's not like he can do anything about it now.

"So what should I do?" he asked the Keeper.

" **My advice? Stay with them. While it may be because I would be here as well, these hybrids do raise some valid points. Going beyond the city walls would be a death sentence."** the Keeper replied.

The silver eyed women then looked at Naruto expectantly.

"It said I should stay with you." he told them.

Helen was relieved to hear this, and then grinning cheerfully she went over and threw an arm over Naruto's shoulder and pulled him to her. "Great! Come on, lets go back inside!" she then dragged him back to the building.

"Wha- Helen I can walk myself there!" he protested.

"I know. Don't care!"

As the other 22 women looked on in bewilderment Deneve let out an exasperated sigh at her friends antics. Troublesome as ever, that woman. Nevertheless she followed after the duo. The Keeper watched the strange human, and the hybrid dragging him with a curious gaze. It looked at the other hybrids for a moment before following after the human.

As for Miria, as her eyes followed after the floating Keeper, she felt a weight lifted from her shoulders. With it with them their chances of survival increased. She didn't like the fact they're going to have to protect someone who's going to be a burden, but right now she'll take all the help she can get.

If getting Naruto to stay got the Keeper to stay, then so be it.

Meanwhile said young man huffed as Helen had finally let get of him now that they were inside. The grinning woman merely ruffled his head before she walked off, standing next in place to Deneve's side.

" **That one has personality."** the Keeper said as it looked at Helen. It's tone full of fondness. **"It reminds me a little of Dempsey,"**

Furrowing his brow Naruto gave the Keeper a curious look. "Who's Dempsey?"

" **He was one of Primis."**

"You know Primis by name?" Naruto question had gotten the attention of everyone within ear range. Which consisted of Helen, Deneve, Miria and a few others such as Clare, Cynthia and Veronica.

The Keeper nodded in the affirmative. **"Yes. They were a unique group. All four came from different countries and with different ideals. But they were the best of the best."** which was an understatement of the century. Those four defeated the Keepers nemesis, the original, and first, harbinger of doom; not once, but several times in many dimensions. Some ended up dying in their final battle. Some lived to tell the tale. But when ever the enemy showed themselves, Primis would defeat them. Every. Single. Time.

There was one exception however. Where one of the four had gotten corrupted, captured and wiped the minds of the other three, and ended up destroying the Earth. But another Primis group, a younger version of them, reversed all of that.

"They must have been one effective team then." Naruto stated.

" **They were. While they were ordinary humans, everywhere they went the destruction and massacre of the enemy followed."** the Keeper said almost reverently.

"So..." Helen piped up, bringing the attention of Naruto and the Keeper on her. "one of the four was called Dempsey?" the Keeper nodded to her answer. Helen dropped it at that satisfied with the answer. At least they have a name to give one of the legendary heroes.

"Who were the other three?" Deneve asked.

" **Do you want to know their full names, or by the names they went by?"** the Keeper asked, with Naruto translating for it. Deneve wanted to know their full names. **"Very well. Their names were 'Tank' Dempsey, Nikolai Belinski, Takeo Masaki and Edward Richtofen."** Naruto once more translated the Keepers words.

Helen and Deneve, including those who were close enough to eavesdrop were happy to finally have the names of the Legendary Four. Their names had been lost to time since the fall.

Exhaling Naruto walked to the wall furthest from the others and sat down. He didn't want to get in their way after all and he can already tell he's going to be giving them an unnecessary problem. The Keeper teleported beside him and floated there standing guard.

" **What are you going to do now that you're staying?"** asked the Keeper; it kept its hissing down so only Naruto can hear it.

The sitting man cocked his head slightly to the side. "Keep myself out of their hair obviously. No matter what I do I am going to be a burden on them. I may as well keep myself out of the way as much as I can so I won't distract them." he said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

The Keeper just give him a look and he had no idea how, but he could tell the Keeper was giving him a disappointed look. Even though it had no eyes and and didn't convey anything in its gestures. He just knew the Keeper was giving him a disappointed look.

It was...a little creepy to say the least.


	4. Chapter 4

Primis

Chapter 3

 _'Well. We won. But it came at a cost. Everything we know – everything we grew up with, all of it is gone. There's not many of us left now. This war with the enemy nearly wiped out everyone. Nikolai, Takeo and Richtofen have all agreed with me that it's going to be damn near impossible for us to rebuild, to go back to the way things were. But things aren't all bad. We can still rebuild but it will take some time for us to get back to the level of technology we were use too.' - Dempsey_

Naruto was in a corner and quietly keeping to himself. The cowl of his hood was angled in such a way that it shadowed his face, while concealing the rest of it. Unknown to the others and the Keeper who was hovering beside him the blonde was sleeping. Had been for a few minutes now and no one was the wiser.

His sleep was about to be abruptly interrupted by a certain short haired hybrid.

Helen walked over and with a sniggering grin she loudly announced her presence by sitting down beside him with and said out loud, "Hey! Kid!"

The sudden noise jerked Naruto awake and he smacked the back of his head against the wall behind him.

"Agh!" he groaned painfully as he reached behind his head to rub at the throbbing area of his skull. Naruto weakly glared at the sniggering Helen from under his hood. "Not funny Helen."

Helen covered her sniggering mouth, "I thought it was." she threw an arm over his shoulder and pulled Naruto to her, who grunted in surprise at the sudden action. "So before you ended up here, what was your home like?"

Naruto looked at her and then at Miria in suspicion. Was she fishing for information? Meh. He doesn't see any harm in telling her; it's not like no one back home is going to berate him for it. The ungrateful cunts.

"...What do you want to know?"

Helen shrugged. "Are there any yomas; voracious eaters; the organization there? You know, the basics."

"By 'organization' I'm guessing you mean the men in black?" at her nod Naruto sighed and rest his chin on his hand. "No. On the first and second." that earned him a hopeful look from Helen. Having a place where there's no yoma's and awakened beings? That seemed like a dream come true! "The third, well, considering my parents sold me to them I am sure they're there. If they're not then they are either well connected to the people in my homeland or they just got there recently. Anything else you want to know?"

"What does it look like when it's compared to here?"

"Well...appearance wise, it's not that different if I am honest. The buildings are very similar to my homes." Naruto admitted with a tired sigh. "The differences my homeland has when compared to here is that we use some technology that was recovered from the old world." if he hadn't gotten her full attention then, what he said just now certainly did. "Making buildings from metal, glass and brick. Some of them are big enough to be seen above the city walls. We even have electricity!" what he said there had surprised Helen immensely. Because while much of the technology from the old world had been lost, some of the things they had utilised before their fall is still known. Electricity being one of them. But she didn't say anything and allowed Naruto to go on; the hooded blonde paused momentarily just so he can think on what he can explain next. "Weapon wise we use swords, cannons, grenades and muskets."

When Miria walked over she caught the end of Naruto's explanation, which immediately caught her interest.

"- weapon wise, we use swords, cannons, grenades and muskets."

"What's a musket?" Helen asked from what she could hear from her position.

"It's a firearm. Ever heard of those?" The blond male responded, to which Helen responded with a 'no' and shake of her head. Naruto continued his explanation, describing the type of weapon in detail. These muskets he spoke of used a substance he called 'gunpowder' to function, which when struck gave energy and velocity to small projectiles made of metal. Bullets, another terminology Miria was unfamiliar with.

"How fast are these projectiles?" the sitting woman asked unknowing that Miria was getting closer to them.

Naruto clicked his tongue and exhaled. "It's a little hard to explain, but to give a simple answer: they move faster than the eye can see. They're really small too. They're about this size." he made a circle with his thumb and forefinger to show her. "They're incredibly inaccurate though, and can only be fired once before the long process of reloading is required. That's done by loading gunpowder into a pan or tube inside the rifle, and of course there's the chamber to house ammunition." Naruto added, touching up on the musket's flaws. "That said, in the hands of an entire platoon nothing is more dangerous than a hail of bullets."

"Huh. How do you know so much about that?" Helen was really into the conversation now and while the kid was speaking in terms she didn't really understand, she could tell he was not lying about it.

Naruto chuckled and shrugged, "I used a musket here and there in the past. I had to learn how to use it properly." which was a bit of trail and error on his part. Kakashi and Yamato were the ones who taught him. His mother and father, and his own sisters didn't bother trying. To him they probably thought he would just waste their time given he was talentless in pretty much everything else he tried to do. It was pretty ironic he was strangely good at utilising firearms, and from the looks of things the Wrath of the Ancients and Ancients Wrath as well.

The young man scratched the side of his cheek and admitted, "like for example, I was a security guard once during a brief stint in a penitentiary. Muskets were pretty standard, so..."

"You? A prison guard? No way kid. You're scrawny!" Helen giggled at the thought.

"Hey! They weren't picky about who they recruited!" Naruto defended himself. "The warden was this big fat guy, if that tells you something." Helen furrowed her brow at the image before making a face. "And he does the searches of inmates himself. Body cavity searches, even."

At that, Helen's face turned sour. "Gross," she said.

Miria made a disgusted face at the image too. "Yeah. Tell me about it. And besides' I took down a Margwa by myself. Sure I had a little help on where its weakness was, but I took it down by myself." he pointed out to her.

Helen had to give him that. For a normal human being to kill an abomination like that on their lonesome was nothing short of impressive.

"I have to ask: if your homeland is this advanced then how come the organization didn't take anything?" Helen asked, and Miria took this time to butt in to the conversation as well. As she too was curious; the organisation were not the type of people to just let any advantage out of their grasp.

"Yes, I would like to know this as well." both Helen and Naruto looked at the woman; Miria looked between the two and crossed her arms under her bust. Waiting patently for an answer.

Naruto let out a tired sigh, "They took me remember?" he directed that at Helen, "But if you're talking about everything else, well, I don't have an answer for you. There could be many reasons. Theories."

"The highest levels of my former village were involved in me being here, I know that much. To what extent I don't know, but it definitely went all the way to the top back home." Naruto clicked his teeth, shaking his head. "That's it, really. But I'm still here, not in the Organization's clutches like those traitors hoped for."

"...What did the organization try to do?" that voice was from someone he didn't know and looking up Naruto saw he had gotten the attention of everyone in the room. The one that spoke was the one with the pageboy; Clare. "You said the Organization had their hands on you; what were they trying to do?" she asked once more when he gave her a confused look.

"They tried to cut me open; to conduct an experiment if I had to guess. I can remember some creepy guy in black with half of his face missing standing over me. I blacked out after that, and when I came to again there was some... unexpected help. Long story short; I'm a free man."

"...Half of his face missing?" the muscular woman said questioningly as many of the women shuddered; they heard Dae was killed off a month ago and had a strange circular wound on his head. While the man wasn't missed by any of them - he was just plain creepy - the heads of the Organization were more than a little angry that they had lost one of their own. Especially with one as valuable as Dae with his previous occupation as their lead scientist director.

Miria had read the reports when the handlers and heads weren't looking. The damage was so severe on the back of Dae's head that large skull fragments and brain-matter covered the floor around him. They found a strange projectile embedded in the ground under the deceased man's head. It was damaged though.

And there were similar wounds on the other men they had recovered too.

And based on what he described of these bullets, she came to the conclusion that these projectiles in his homeland were one and the same. She wasn't far off on that. It was indeed a bullet that killed them, but not the kind she is thinking of or the ones Naruto knows of.

"Who were the people who rescued you?" Miria asked; if they could find them then their chances of getting off this forsaken island would increase.

"I don't know." Naruto repled, lying through his teeth. "They were...different. Too different. One had weapons that was similar to a musket but was more advanced."

Everyone in the room jumped when they heard the Keeper hiss. They had forgotten it was in the room with them. **"An advanced musket? Hmm. There are many from the Old World that has been lost to time. But I remember them. Would this be the weapon you're talking about, human?"** the Keeper asked and before their very eyes the Keeper created a perfect replica of an M-16 assault rifle, one of the weapons that the Namikaze had seen the other Naruto use in his rescue, in its hands.

"Holy shit." Naruto quickly got up and walked over. "That's one of them!"

"That's a musket?" Helen asked as she too got up to get a better look. Miria was even interested in it now that she got to see one, even if it was a replica, up close and personal.

"No this is something else entirely. Something more far advanced than a musket. If my memory is right...this is an...M16? Did I get that right?" Naruto looked at the Keeper for confirmation. The Keeper nodded.

"I need me one of those." Naruto had to admire the black rifle's appearance. He had no idea what material it was made of, but it sure had a sheen to it. Mostly the handguard and stock he would presume, the other parts seemed more metal-like, excepted they were a matte black.

"It doesn't look much if you ask me." the muscular woman said.

Naruto let out a chuckle; while it didn't look much even he knew how deadly it was. The muskets were based on the battle rifles the Old World used after all. "Well considering the projectiles it shoots are faster than the eye can see appearances won't matter."

"How many more of these weapons did the Old World have?" Cynthia asked.

" **Too many to count. And too many to bring up."** the Keeper hissed, with Naruto translating once more. Cynthia pouted with disappointment at that and Naruto found it cute; thank god that his hood was still up or else they would have seen him blush a little.

Suddenly Helen came to a realisation, "Hey!" she put an arm over Naruto's shoulder and pulled him into a one armed hug, with his hooded face against her chest, "I just realised we're bonding kid!" she exclaimed with a cheeky grin; she ignored the grunt of protest from the boy and the irritated sigh from her best friend.

After a bit of wrestling, Naruto was finally able to free himself of Helen's grasp. "H-hey! Get off me, man!"

"I'm a woman, you know."

"It's just an expression of... you know what, never mind." he sighed.

"He he he, you know you liked it." Helen had a big smug grin on her face.

Naruto opened his mouth to say something, only to close it again. He shook his head, "Nope. I am not going to dig myself any deeper."

"C'mon kid, admit it." Naruto started to lean away uncomfortably as Helen leaned in. "You liked being pushed against my chest." she was practically purring now.

"Helen, knock it off." Deneve told her. The flustered Naruto nodded his thanks towards the pixie-haired woman for the save. He was embarrassed enough as it were with Helen's consistent teasing.

Helen sighed and eased up on her teasing. "Alright. But answer me this kid: has anyone ever teased you the way I did back home?" to her it was a harmless question, to Deneve it was another way to try and embarrass Naruto.

To Naruto on the other hand it was more than that. "No. Actually. Truth be told no one back home ever gave me the light of day. Being a failure and all that. That's not to say I haven't met girls before. Just not from my home town. I travelled for a bit until I was about 15, before going back home two years ago." Girls in his home never gave him the light of day. However some foreign women had no idea who he was, and on occasion he was considered to be handsome. About the only good thing he got from his father were his good looks, apparently.

Naruto was almost a carbon copy of his father, with a few facial differences passed down from his birth mother. But for the most part, his looks came from dear old dad. From the high cheek bones to the golden blond hair and sky blue eyes.

"People called you a failure? Why?" Clare asked him with narrowed eyes.

"My dad is the leader of my town and a war hero. My mum, a former commander and a war hero also. My sisters, are well known commanders in my homes military. To make a long story short: failure to meet expectations. I may be good using guns but that was all." Naruto replied, more than a little bitter at them.

"Because of you using trail and error for that." Miria said.

"Yeah. I did horribly at everything else they tried to have me do. So I was brushed off as a failure and they made sure to let everyone else know too." he concluded with a shrug. Suffice to say he stopped caring about them a long time ago.

"...What a bunch of dicks!"

"Yuma!" one of the women gasped, scandalised.

The long haired woman tried to shrink in on herself at her exclamation before she seemingly got a grip on herself, "It's true though! They must not be good parents if they just...did that to him!" she said, pointing at the hooded blonde.

"In their defence, and I don't do this often, my family has a military background. And they have a lot of enemies." which wasn't much of a defence. But then again he didn't say it was going to be a good defence.

"That's...not much of a defence kid." Helen pointed out.

"Oh I know. I never said it was going to be a good one."

"Sooooo...what do you look like under your hood?" Helen asked and Naruto was both thankful and annoyed. Thankful because she changed the topic and annoyed because now he's pretty sure they're going to be curious too.

He knew he was going to regret asking this, "Why do you want to know?"

"You've been with us for like, almost a week, and not once have I seen your face." Despite herself, Deneve too was curious as Helen, though she did not voice it like her friend.

"Would you drop it if I said I was ugly? Like...bringing a tear to your eye ugly?"

"I don't believe you." Helen said with a flat stare.

"...Yeah, didn't think so." Naruto sighed; he looked at the other hybrids and saw they were curious as well. Even though a few of them, like Miria, tried to show disinterest. "Fine, whatever, this was bound to happen soon anyway," the young man sighed again before pulling his down, revealing golden locks which fell down to frame his jaw. It was getting pretty long, if he said so himself.

The blond male brushed his hair out of his forehead, as a few strands fell down in front of his piercing blue eyes. He seriously needed a haircut, it was extremely shaggy and it made him too reminiscent of his father. Naruto just never had the time for it. Maybe he can change that after all of this is over.

Helen grinned with a bit of pink dusting her cheeks, he was pretty cute actually. "See, you're not so bad kid." the woman purred, staring directly into the depth of those azure orbs, easily his most striking feature. "You know, I never seen eyes like yours before. Guess you really are not from here, huh?"

Naruto blinked at her for a moment before saying, "Aaaaaand that's my cue to put the hood back on." as he quickly pulled the hood back up. Or rather that was his intention. Helen kinda put a stop to that.

Helen laughed as she kept Naruto from covering his face again. "C'mon now, hiding a face like yours is an injustice! Hmm, you could use a haircut though." The woman ran her gloved hand through his hair, patting him as if he were a dog. Then she pinched his cheek, grinning with amusement. "You're just adorable! Deneve, we're definitely keeping him!"

"H-hey! And I'm right here you know!"

"Yes you are, Naruto. Yes you are."

"And quit pinching my cheek would you?!"

She did that only to caress his cheek instead. However that made it easier for him to get away. Helen allowed him too and watched with mild disappointment as he quickly pulled his hood back up.

He quickly moved back to his original spot and sat down. The Keeper seeing as no one was looking at the M16 dematerialised it and went back to what it was doing before. Standing guard.

"You should show your face more often Naruto. You are rather handsome." said Helen, and many of the women silently agreed with her. They thought Naruto was good looking, though some hid it better than others. Quite a few girls looked like they were about to swoon while others were tinted red on the cheeks.

Cynthia, Veronica and Yuma being a few who were red cheeked. Though like Miria and Deneve, Veronica had kept it hidden with a mask of indifference. Though the formers were slightly red faced as well.

"Handsome?" he smiled, but it wasn't amused. "Heh... That's the funniest thing I've heard all day."

Deneve frowned at his tone and said as she crossed her arms. "Something tells me there's a story to this."

Naruto rolled his neck and shoulders to loosen the stiffness he felt settling in, "My family are famous commanders and war heroes remember. Nine times out of ten people who showed an 'interest' in me, and I am saying that loosely, had used me to get close to my parents and sisters." he sighed and rolled his wrist and feet, "Suffice to say those kind of relationships never lasted longer than a month or two. At worst. If I am lucky they mess up and I cut off ties to them within a few days."

"That's...sucky." Helen lamely said; really this kid had a lot of shit done to him. The fact he had been sold to the organization, something a few people in this very room can sympathise with, being used by people to get close to his family.

"That's life. And life's not fair. Sometimes you have to just...suck it up and deal with it. Or ignore it all together. Or just go on with what you have." Naruto felt as if he had aged a little discussing that. And he wasn't comfortable with it. "Can we talk about something else?

"Actually, I think it's near the time the voracious eaters are going to attack." Miria said stopping the conversation while simultaneously reminding everyone of their circumstance. "We should prepare ourselves for the onslaught."

"Right."

"We heard you captain."

"Great. The voracious eaters..."

The hybrids said while others saluted or gave nods of affirmation to her. Miria then brought her attention to Naruto.

"As for you: stay here. If the voracious eaters know you're here, they'll try to kill you first." Naruto didn't say anything; he silently stared at her before sighing and nodding in acceptance.

"What about the Keeper?" Eliza asked.

"It'll-" Miria began only to be interrupted by Naruto.

"-stay with me. If those eater things do find me then it would be a good idea to have a Keeper to back me up." he told them and seeing they weren't happy – Helen and Deneve looked a little irritated and annoyed at him – that he had practically taken away their higher chance of survival he threw in some logic. "There's over twenty of you and one of me. I think I'd need the protection a heck of a lot more than you do."

He hummed thoughtfully and added, "But if it looks like you're about to die, then the Keeper can go and bail you out. Happy?"

The other 23 hybrids looked at Miria to see what she would say. She was thoughtfully staring at the ground from the bottom of her eyes. Sighing the leader came to a decision and looked at the sitting Naruto who was waiting patently for her answer.

"It'll do."

Naruto nodded and watched as Miria turned and gestured for the women to follow her outside. Helen stopped, just for a moment, and looked at Naruto from over her shoulder in concern before following Miria and the others outside.

When it was just himself and the Keeper inside the room, the young man looked at the hovering being with a frown. "Alright I want you to be honest with me Keeper, how many people can you teleport at once?"

" **...I can teleport twenty four people."** was its answer.

Naruto let out a sigh although it came out as a growl. That, posed a problem. Thinning his lips the young man brought his hands to his face.

"Alright," he began as he made his decision bringing his hands down to his lap, "if worse comes to worse I want you to get them out first."

The Keeper stared at him, surprised, and Naruto could hear it in its tone as it said, **"Are you sure? You'll be at the mercy of these...'voracious eaters' if I do so."**

Naruto nodded, unyielding in his decision. "I'm sure, Keeper. Besides..." he fingered the blood vial hidden under his poncho, "I have a few things hidden up my sleeve."

The Keeper nodded in acceptance; it thought the young man was talking about Ancients Wrath and the Wrath of the Ancients.

" **Very well. But I can give you some help. For when the time comes."**

The Keeper started waving its hands around the orb of electricity. Faster and faster. Naruto slowly got to his feet as an object began to manifest within the orb, and it slowly got bigger and bigger.

Oh yeah, Naruto thought with a growing smile. He can work with this.

X.X.X.X

It took a few minutes for the enemy arrive but when they did it was a small group of three. Most likely a scouting party to test the waters. With Miria assigning them into five groups, mixing the strong with the weak, they were able to take them down with no deaths.

A few had gotten injured; and Yuma had lost a limb in the first assault.

But it wasn't over yet. Not by a long shot.

"Everyone prepare yourselves for the second wave! They'll be here any second!" Miria yelled to them and she knew that the second wave would be nothing like this farce of a force they had just dealt with.

And she was right. Because when everyone felt a huge surge of yoki from within Pieta's walls, so very shockingly close to them, everyone was struck with pure unaltered terror. When everyone looked in the direction it came from they all saw a werewolf/lion like awakened glaring down at them from a rooftop.

From the safety of the building the hybrids left him in Naruto was peering outside through the partially open door. He looked up and found the Keeper peering through the partially open door as well. Looking back outside the young man saw the women stiffen and look up at one of the rooftops in utter terror. Unfortunately he couldn't see who could make them feel such fear as they were out of his line of sight.

But whoever has them shaking in their boots like that must be trouble. Or something they stand little to no chance against.

"Keeper."

" **Yes?"**

"The second this thing they're afraid of attacks, go out there and get everyone out. Leave their weapons behind if you have too just get them out."

" **Of course."**

As requested, the Keeper had done just as he asked and in the blink of an eye, they were gone. Not a trace of they or the Keeper's existence was left behind. And just as the thing the women were afraid of showed himself, landing in the middle of the abandoned city looking around in confusion.

Naruto exhaled nervously - he was now alone. Whatever was coming this way, there were approaching very fast and he had very little time until they were finally here. Any sweat that could of seeped through the pores of his forehead were instantly freezed, courtesy of the frigid cold around him.

"Okay let's do this..." Naruto brought up the weapon he was given along with the attachments it came with.

It looked like an assault rifle of some kind. A different model from the M16. It had a sleek black tube on the front end of it. He had no idea what the purpose of that was but he wasn't going to take it off.

There was another device. It was small but it faintly glowed; pulsating every few seconds that showed several dots. It showed blue dots, but ever since the women were taken away by the Keeper it now showed red. And there were several of them closing in.

"Alright if my hunch of correct then the red dots are the enemy. Best find another way out..." backing away from the door Naruto searched for another exit to the building as quietly as possible.

It took a few minutes but he found the back door. Looking at the monitor? Yeah, he'll call it monitor for now. Looking at the monitor there was no enemy near by and recalling the nearest exit when he took on the Margwa – whatever happened to its corpse anyway? He never did see the body oddly enough – it was to the east of his current location.

As he made his way through the back allies a snow storm began to start. It got really heavy fairly quickly and rather than be annoyed by it Naruto was happy with it.

"Ah. Good timing weather!" he mused with with a small smile. The fact there was a winter storm coming means he can use it to cover his approach to the exit. And with the monitor he'll be able to tell where they are and how close they are to him.

However there were a couple of close calls. He had to get down on one knee and hunch over as low as he possibly could when a giant gorilla like awakened past him.

With the cover of the snow storm working for him plus the monitor telling him of any approaching enemies he made it out of the city undetected. Home free he sprinted as fast as he could under the cover of storm.

Naruto stopped running when he was far enough away from Pieta. And he was several miles out. So far that he should be hard to see under the howling storm of snow. He checked the monitor and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw there was no one near him any longer.

Now he had a new problem: he was in the FUCKING COLD!

Shivering with clattering teeth he regretted not changing his attire. He's not going to survive here. Not for long anyway. Putting the sling of the weapon over his head and shoulder he allowed the weapon to drop to his side.

He just had to figure out what to do from here.

His answer came in the form of the Keeper who reappeared just a few feet away from him. He saw that the robed being was exhausted teleporting all of those women as it was heaving and growling heavily.

" **You...made...it..."** the Keeper sounded surprised, and relieved, to see that he was unhurt. **"Good...very good... Come...we must...get you... out of here."** it said as it approached him one clawed hand reaching out to him.

Naruto gladly took its hand into his own, "Are you sure? You look like you're about to fall over any minute."

The Keeper nodded; there was no time to lose; the sooner it can get the human out of here the quicker it can rest. Then they were gone.

Of course, it wasn't that simple.

The Keeper had miscalculated; thought it could bring Naruto with it while it was exhausted. After it had teleported twenty four people at the same time. The Keeper had done it once, a long time ago, and it brought it to exhaustion. Of course seeing as it didn't have to bring anyone else with it at the time, the Keeper thought it could bring one more person with it while it was exhausted. A classic overestimation of oneself.

The Keeper got to its destination in the mountains with one person short and fell face first in the snow unconscious.

And Naruto was left elsewhere. Some place that is beyond the reach of almost everyone. Except the Keeper.


	5. Chapter 5

Primis

Chapter 4

 _'Sometimes when you're dealing with an enemy that outnumbers you two to one, you're gonna have to do some pretty risky, and often, insane things just to even the odds in your favour.'_

When he woke up Naruto found himself laying on rough ground. Hard. Uncomfortable. Unforgiving. Inhaling and exhaling he slowly dragged his arms and legs in and pushed himself up on his hands and knees. It took a lot of effort because his strength had left him. His arms and legs were shaking uncontrollably. He let his head hang there, it was straining enough just to get himself in the position he is in now.

Then he remembered what happened. He took the Keeper by the hand hand, an exhausted Keeper, and it intended to bring him to safety. With the other women was his guess. But then his hand slipped out of the Keeper's and he was dropped elsewhere. He several metres up in the air and lost consciousness when he hit the ground.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid!" he berated himself.

It was a stupid thing to do. Very stupid. He knew the Keeper was exhausted. He should have told it to rest first. To get its strength back before bringing him to the others. But because the Keeper said it could bring him to the others he believed it.

Which led him to where he was now.

Taking in another deep breath Naruto exhaled and pushed himself up once more. He dragged his feet in and with one final push he put himself in a sitting position. Breathing heavily Naruto pulled down his hood and looked for his assault rifle. It was just within arms length to his right and he leaned over and dragged it to him.

He checked the monitor attached to its side and to his relief and dismay he discovered there was no one around. Relief because there was no enemy and dismayed because that means there's no friendlies either.

"Shit. Alright Naruto..." he said as he began to look around for any familiar landmarks. There were none. But that meant he found his new environment. "Where the hell did you end up...?" he breathed out in dismayed awe.

A night sky with a lot of stars. A gigantic blue moon that illuminated everything. He could see large floating islands with buildings on it elevated around him. Some were familiar; others were very familiar, and many were not.

Around him were houses. Houses from his home with all the furniture and utilities still contained within. There was a church on a hill nearby that had large cracks and fissures running along its structure. It was blocked off by by a large hole in the ground around it.

And down the street ahead of him was a two storey building. He knows that place. It's his home. What he didn't recognise was what is floating above it: a tall floating tower. And what was in front of the house. A turret in the shape of a head with an open mouth. It was wider and taller than him.

On the nearest elevated land he could see a mound with trenches surrounding it. On another he could see several buildings in ruins. While some of them were still standing, a large part of them had a massive hole blown through the walls. All in all the entire place looked like it had just gone through a war. He could see a tower, similar to the one above his house, on those elevated landscapes as well. And a small floating island had the structure of a mostly intact cathedral on it.

Naruto slowly got back up and walked over to the turret in front of his house. He'd might as well see what the hell it is.

...On second thought he will do that right after he checks out his house first.

X.X.X.X

After an undetermined amount of time.

Miria slowly opened her eyes and immediately closed them again when snow fell into them. Her silver eyes snapped open when the last thing she remembered was Rigaldo glaring down at them from the rooftop and she immediately sat up. She frantically looked around for her comrades and found their bodies laying in the snow around her.

Fear and terror gripped her heart when she found they were unmoving. And as seconds seemingly went to minutes she was about to go over to each one and check if they were alive. Before she could do so however the women groaned and slowly sat up one by one. All of them. All twenty four were alive. All were healed! Her fear, her terror was replaced with immense relief.

"Wha- what happened?" Miria heard Undine, the formerly muscular hybrid, now thin and frail looking, groggily asked.

"We...we're alive. All of us! Ha ha! I don't believe it!" Helen cheered happily, she fell back into the snow and laughed with relief.

"The Keeper..." Miria looked at Zelda who was standing unsteadily on her feet. "It was the Keeper who got us out of there."

"I'm going to kiss that kid when I get my hands on him!" Helen declared as she sat back up with a fist clenched determinedly in her face. She was just so god damn happy that everyone was alive!

"Get in line." Cynthia said with a smile. It was at this point that everyone was laughing joyously. Well except for a small few.

One of them being Deneve. Now that he was brought up Deneve realised he was being eerily quiet. Almost as if he wasn't... Inhaling sharply the pixie-haired woman quickly got up and wildly looked around, much to the surprise and bewilderment of everyone and started counting the amount of people here. There was twenty four of them.

Wait...there was a person shaped lump in the snow near them.

"Helen, help me out!" she yelled out as she ran over to the lump she was hoping is Naruto.

"Wha..." the woman in question looked at Deneve in confusion for a moment. Then she saw where she was going. She cursed as Naruto is an ordinary human and being in the snow like that could potentially kill him. "Yeah, okay!" she quickly got up and ran after her friend.

When the two hybrids got halfway they froze mid run when the lump slowly rose and as the snow dropped onto the floor it was revealed to be the Keeper.

Growling in confusion the Keeper held the side of its head as it slowly looked around. It saw Helen and Deneve staring at it. And the other twenty two were in the same spot but standing. It quickly dismissed them and continued looking around.

There was a person short. Hissing frantically the Keeper quickly floated up and started looking around.

All of the hybrids watched as the Keeper started to have a small panic attack. The sight would have been hilarious if it weren't so serious.

"Deneve..." Helen was flat eyed and deathly calm as her eyes followed the frantic Keeper.

"...Yeah?" Deneve was the same.

Slowly ever so slowly Helen turned to look at her friend. "I don't think the kid is with us." Deneve nodded to show she agreed and knew. Taking a deep breath Helen closed her eyes faced the direction the Keeper is in. When her eyes opened the short haired woman snarled and yelled out in the most outraged tone she could muster, "HEY! KEEPER! WHERE THE FUCK IS NARUTO!"

The Keeper stopped what it was doing and looked at Helen. It hissed at her and to the hybrids frustration she was unable to understand what the hell it was saying!

"I can't understand you Keeper." Helen said through grit teeth. "Can you like, do whatever you did that let Naruto understand you?"

The other hybrids walked over to Helen and Deneve and just watched. Then everyone reached for their claymore's when they heard an unfamiliar voice only to realise they don't have their swords.

" **There. Now you and everyone else can understand me."** everyone stared wide eyed at the Keeper. They can actually understand it!

"Can you tell us why Helen and Deneve's...companion is not with us?" Miria respectfully and politely asked the Keeper before Helen could say something that would offend it.

" **...My teleportation limit is twenty four. And there are twenty four of you. When you went out the one you are asking for had asked for the limit on how many humans I can teleport."** the Keeper told her.

"What happened after that?" Miria asked as she sent a quick glance to Helen. She looked impatient and worried.

" **He requested to get you all out first if the situation becomes dire. After the enemy got you spooked he had I retrieve you from peril."**

"You. Left him. Alone?! With the awakened beings?!" Helen growled fiercely.

So those creatures are known as awakened beings as well? The Keeper filed that phrase away for later.

The Keeper loomed over Helen threateningly, **"You underestimate how resourceful he can be, hybrid."**

"There's over twenty of them Keeper." Miria butted in before Helen could make a scathing retort. "We may have killed three of them but that still left over twenty. The chances of him, a normal human, getting out of there is...abysmal." and despite how much she wants to believe the young man is alive, the likelihood of him getting out of that mess at Pieta is very unlikely.

The Keeper chuckled, **"Truly? Because when I went back retrieve him, he was already out of the city. Several miles out in fact. The blizzard of snow that was there may have helped."** it informed her, then the Keeper sighed as it turned around and began to monologue to itself, **"I do not understand what had happened. I may have been exhausted teleporting all of you to safety, but I had the human in hand. He should be here...unless..."**

"Unless?" Miria prompt from it.

" **It is a long shot, but if he had lost the grip on my hand, he may have ended up in a place that is very dangerous."** the Keeper replied turning back to face the captain. **"If he is where I think he is then his life will be in constant danger."**

"Where ever he is I'm going after him." Helen declared as she got up in the Keeper's face. Or tried too. It was floating after all. "I don't care how dangerous this place he ended up may be, I'm going after him! Just try to stop me!"

Instead of being offended the Keeper just laughed, **"Ha ha ha! Very well. Does anyone else want to volunteer?"**

Deneve stepped up. "I'll go too. Someone has to keep you in check." she said with a sigh.

"I'll come with. If this boy means that much to you Helen I might as well help." Clare said as she approached them.

"I'll join you." Jean stepped up she did owe Clare and now this Naruto her life.

Sighing Miria stepped up as well, "I'll accompany them as well. It's the least I can do for this kid." he did risk his own life to get everyone out of there alive. So getting him out of this potentially dangerous place is one way to repay him.

" **Does anyone else want to join?"** asked the Keeper.

Cynthia looked at the others, and seeing as no one was going to volunteer she shrugged and went to the others. "I'll join. What is the maximum limit of people that can join if I may ask?" she questioned the Keeper.

" **Eight. The more people I have to teleport the easier it is for I to tire. So eight is the limit."**

Two more stepped forward and joined the other six, Yuma and Tabitha. While the former was shy and in-confident with herself she had wanted to help Naruto since he practically got them out without any deaths. And she wanted to return the favour.

Tabitha was in a similar state of mind. While she was annoyed that Naruto had not allowed the Keeper to help them, that changed when he allowed the Keeper to get them to escape at the risk of his own life. She felt she owed him.

" **Alright. That is eight."** The Keeper looked over them all. **"Be warned: where we are going is _nothing_ like you have seen before. Do not wander off and if you must split up do so with another person. Do you eight understand?"**

The eight women all nodded in affirmation; satisfied the Keeper teleported itself and the eight women away. The remaining women shared a look and decided to get themselves comfortable. The snow had let up for the moment and while they were unaffected by the cold weather, it didn't mean they did not find it uncomfortable.

X.X.X.X

He saw crouched on the windowsill to peer through the window and look inside the interior of the building. It was a medium sized bedroom, with a bed, three wardrobes, a beside table, two shelves, a television and a computer. Naruto nodded to himself; this was definitely his home. Or it was very similar to it.

If the building is similar to his then there should be a built in solar generator on the roof and a battery storage inside that powers up everything in the house.

While Naruto's homeland may be advanced enough to have muskets, they're advanced enough to have built radios, televisions and computers. How they didn't create more powerful weapons yet is beyond him.

He pulled himself in and then gravity took hold and he fell to the floor with a scream. Face first. He rolled on to his back and stared up at the ceiling with a red imprint of his face.

"Ouch."

He grunted in discomfort since the Commando was angling his back in a very uncomfortable way. Letting out a growling exhale Naruto sat himself up, rubbed his face and briefly looked at the wardrobe then down at himself.

"Yeah a change of clothes would be nice." with a groan the young man stood up and went to one of the wardrobes, "Hope they're actually stocked on clothes. I really need to change."

When he opened it he paused and narrowed his eyes in confusion. None of the clothes he was familiar with was there. Everything in there was different from what he was use too. Thankfully none of them were all that different from what he was wearing right now.

He grabbed a shemagh scarf, not that he knew what it was, a long and thick double breasted, wide lapelled brown heavy coat with straps on the wrist, a storm flap and pockets that button-close, and shoulder straps that also button-close.

Some long length, straight leg cut trousers was grabbed next that had a battle dress wool fabric and metal brace buttons. A long sleeved tunic with four pleated pockets, reinforced shoulders, brass buttons and the same wool fabric as the trousers. A pair ankle boots, and long putties that were on the floor. All the same colour as the rest of the clothing. He also grabbed a pair of brown gloves made of leather that was on the bottom of the closet as a last minute decision.

He also took a webbing set. Which consisted of a belt, ammunition pouches, shoulder straps, cross straps, a water bottle carrier, a blue enamelled water bottle, a bayonet frog and bayonet, a helve carrier and handle, an entrenching tool carrier and an entrenching tool head and a small pack.

Naruto gave them all a look over. "Well it's a heck of a lot better than what I'm wearing now." he told himself. Not to mention he would be better equipped as well. Then he proceeded to swap clothing and but the new ones on. They were a perfect fit.

He checked himself out on the mirror and nodded to himself. This was good. A heck of a lot better than what he had been wearing previously. Not to mention he felt more protected. He grabbed his commando and slid his arm through the rifle's sling and allowed it to hang at his back. After that he grabbed the orange glowing blood vial he had taken off and reattached it to the small bag on his back.

Alright. Now to check out the turret!

This time he'll go out through the front door.

After exiting the interior of the building, and making sure to take a key in order to get back inside through the front door rather than through the window again, Naruto walked to the turret and slowly walked around it in a circle. Taking in the detail and craftsmanship that was put into it.

To be frank it was disturbing. It looked like a Keeper's head with four eyes and a open mouth that showed several sharp teeth. It looked...wrong. Unnatural.

His curiosity getting the better of him Naruto reached up and touched the turret. Naruto jumped and looked ahead of him with wide eyes when he heard noises. Hungry screeches and moans that seemed like it was coming from hundreds of people.

Then several rotting corpses, wearing clothing familiar and unfamiliar to him crawled out from the buildings in front of him. Numbering in the dozens and steadily growing higher. Many had chunks of skin ripped from their bodies. Some were burnt beyond recognition. Others were missing entire limbs.

And all of them had dark red glowing eyes; just like that yoma he encountered a week ago.

Panicking but keeping a level head Naruto reached for his Commando and held it in his hands. He checked the monitor on it and growled in concern when nothing showed. He glanced between it and the zombies who had noticed he was there. He closed the monitor and recalling his training with Kakashi and Yamato he held the assault rifle like he would use a musket and took aim.

The first zombie fell to the ground like a sack of potatoes from a bullet through the skull. And to Naruto's surprise the gun kept firing, and the recoil of the gun had made him redirect his him upwards.

He let go of the trigger and the gun stopped firing. He took a shakingly deep breath and redirected the barrel to another zombie. He has no idea how many bullets this gun can hold but he's fairly sure there's not a whole lot thanks to his blunder.

He fired in short controlled bursts. Killing several of the shambling, groaning corpses before they could even reach him. But because he was only experienced with muskets, a lot of the bullets had missed their targets entirely. The recoil was something the blonde was not use too but he adapted. It was a slow adaptation but he adapted.

Eventually he ran out of bullets. Which was too soon for his liking as he barely killed 20 of them.

He growled in dismay when he realised he didn't have anything to reload it with and he guessed that cartridge or, whatever it's called at the bottom is what is used to contain the bullets. The Keeper didn't provide him with any extra ammo as far as he knew. Doesn't mean he can't use anything else at his disposal though.

He slipped his arm and head through the sling once more and summoned Ancients Wrath. Blue flames enveloped the blade as he closed the rest of the distance between him and the zombies.

He stabbed a zombie through the head with the blade, burying the skull to the hilt while stabbing another zombie behind it through the head as well. He dragged the blade out and started hacking and slashing through several zombies with ease.

He shoved and kicked away the ones that had gotten too close for comfort, and in doing so Naruto had inadvertently knocked several zombies to the ground and gave himself a small path to get through. But the zombies were many and he was but one person.

Beheading a zombie and punching the face of another Naruto spun around in a full 360 with his sword. The fire enveloped blade cut through the encircling zombies with ease and the seventeen year old dart his eyes around for an escape route.

He quickly ran back to where he first awoke with the zombies in relentless pursuit and took a brief look around. He spotted something near the edge of the floating island he's on and seeing as he didn't have any other options at the moment he went over there to check it out. But not before hacking and slicing through another zombie or two that caught up to him.

It was a curved encircled wall with engravings on them. He didn't know the language though. It's written in a completely different text. With odd pictographs and everything. But on the floor there was a pad of some sort. He didn't know what it entails though.

Naruto quickly looked behind him when hearing the hungry howls of the dead. His eyes went wide in slight panic as the undead horde approached in a huge pile. There was no way he was going to get through them! And they were a little too close for him to safely use the arrows from Wrath of the Ancients!

He let out a loud curse, "Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck!"

Naruto quickly looked back at the pad took a leap of faith and stepped on to it. His stomach dropped as he was suddenly thrown through the air off of the floating island!

"FUCK FUCK FUCk fuck fuck fuck!" Naruto's screams could be heard through the air as it became more and more distant, the further away he got from the starting island.

"Gah!" he landed rather harshly on the other island and fell flat on his stomach after stumbling forward upon handing. Quickly getting his ass up Naruto hastily took in his new surroundings as he moved.

He was on the island that had a mound and trenches. And he landed right at the bottom of it. Now that he was actually here he could see everything in better detail. It looked like hell on earth. Barbed wires; corpses wearing similar clothing to the one he's got on are impaled on spikes; metal pipes ran along and sometimes through the trench walls.

And there was a lot of blood and gore everywhere. Suffice to say whatever happened here must've been bad. Really bad. And he had his suspicions this was once part of the Old World.

As he heard a distant noise of howls and the growls of the dead Naruto turned to face the launch pad – because it launched him from one floating island to another – and swapped his sword out for his bow. He pulled the string back as a flame tipped arrow manifested in his grip and released it once the first set of zombies made land.

The arrow exploded in a beautiful display of fire, blood and gore as it met its target. Naruto rapidly backed away as more and more zombies landed, and fired arrow after arrow at them.

He growled in frustration as more and more kept on coming; their numbers were forcing him to back away until he had to inevitably turn around and make a tactical retreat.

There was no end to them!

Naruto retreated through the trench he was in with the zombies in hot pursuit. Then he caught a lucky break: a heavy, reinforced steel door. He quickly ran through, turned around and shoved all his weight against it in an attempt to get it closed.

The blonde grit his teeth, groaning strainfully against the door as he tried to close it. His brow creased when he saw the zombies getting closer with every passing second. Eyes narrowing with sheer determination Naruto let out a force filled yell as he finally closed the door and locked it just as the zombies reached it.

Naruto let out a breath of relief as he slid to the floor. He could hear the zombies pounding their hands against the metal. But he didn't care. He was safe from them; for the moment at least.

He just hoped they weren't smart enough to climb over things. Or that there wasn't any teleporting zombies like that yoma he killed a week ago. That would suck!

X.X.X.X

 _A few minutes later..._

When Miria, Helen, Deneve, Clare, Cynthia, Yuma, Tabitha and Jean found themselves in a strange area the eight of them had no idea what to think. They saw the star filled night sky, the gigantic blue moon or sun that illuminated everything but didn't burn them to ashes. And around them they could see floating islands with buildings on them.

One of them looked familiar to Clare though. It was a mostly intact cathedral on its own floating island and as she squinted her eyes to get a closer look, the pageboy haired woman recognised it as the cathedral from Rabona! Why was it here? And why was it in that state?

The other hybrids had spread out a bit with were within range of one another. They're on the very same island Naruto was on, and when they had finished looking at the other floating islands they finally took notice of Naruto's handy work.

"Deneve, does their condition remind you of anything?" Helen asked because she was heavily reminded of the yoma Naruto had killed a week ago.

Deneve nodded in affirmation and turned a corpse over on its back with her booted foot, "They're like the decaying yoma we saw a week ago." she looked at the other corpses and grimly added, "Only there's more than one here."

" **This is why I said to not split up. The enemy is numerous here. They never tire and are relentless in their pursuit."** the women all jumped in surprise at the Keeper's sudden appearance. It surveyed its surroundings as it tried to locate Naruto to no luck. **"The more you fight them the stronger they become and the smarter they get."**

"But they're dead! How can they get smarter and stronger if they're already dead?" Tabitha questioned; it was a logical thing to ask since such a thing boggled her like nobodies business.

" **No one knows. Not even I know how this came to be. But it is."** stated the Keeper. **"Eventually your weapons will become useless against them. But there are a few weapons from the Old World that will always guarantee a kill. Unfortunately most of them has been lost to time and the ones that were recovered are inoperable due to the primitiveness of your technology."**

"How do you know all of this? When these weapons were recovered I mean?" Cynthia questioned.

" **I have been around for a...very. Long time. There were times the Keepers checked in. To see if the situation here had waned or not. If it had degraded to the degree it was a near catastrophe we would have interfered. It has not reached that point as of yet. I am only here because I have sensed the human using one of our weapons."**

Once that conversation was done the girls looked at the zombies again and noticed many of them were hacked and slashed with a blade, but the wounds were cauterised. And a small group of zombies further ahead were more intact.

Miria went to look and she found the wounds they suffered were similar to the one that had killed Dae.

"There's corpses here. But the boy here for isn't among them." Miria said, and everyone had one thing going through their minds: if Naruto's not here then he's still alive and fighting.

"To kill so many by himself – for an ordinary human that's impressive." Jean commented and she honestly was impressed at how many corpses there were. There had to be over twenty, at least!

"Let's follow the bodies. Often following bodies leads to where people need to go." Cynthia suggested and then clarified.

"Or too their doom." Yuma nervously countered and eeped in surprise when Cynthia lightly elbowed her on the waist.

"Or both. We never know, right?" the pig tailed woman brightly said.

They didn't have as many options here so they decided to follow with Cynthia's suggestion and follow the bodies. They found a few more bodies behind them and went over to them. And after a short look around all nine found the launch pad Naruto had used to get to the other floating island.

"What's this?" Helen asked aloud as she approached it.

When she went to step on it Deneve's eyes grow wide and reached out to her, "Wait, Helen! Don't-" her warning came short when the short haired woman was thrown through the air and off the floating island. The other 7 watched with stunned eyes as Helen was thrown clear through the void of space, and unknown to them, to the other island Naruto was on. Her scream of terror fading away from their ears the further away she became.

"-step on it..." the pixie-haired woman finished lamely.

X.X.X.X

Helen was not having a fun time.

"AAAAHHHHHAHAHAHAHA! I'M GOING TO DIE!"

Not at all. She could see everyone else becoming a speck as she was launched through the void of space. The fact they were standing on a floating island, on the other hand had gone completely dismissed because she was flying through the air.

To her relief the short haired woman saw she was approaching another floating island. One with a mound and trenches that also had a ton of bodies, impaled on spikes and bits and pieces of zombies laying around along with barbed wire and pipes.

And as she approached the new area she saw someone new someone she didn't know but looked a little familiar. And he was heading right for her trajectory!

"LOOK OUT!" she screamed out at him.

Naruto looked up and went wide eyed in surprise when he saw Helen coming down towards him at a rapid pace. He didn't much time to react and before he knew it the woman collided with him. Both yelled out in pain, Naruto more so than Helen since the latter was wearing plate armour and that added a lot more weight. He was thrown clear off his feet and the two hit the ground with Helen straddling him.

Shaking her head Helen sat up, still straddling Naruto and looked down at him. It was then she realised who he was despite the new get up, because she recognised his vibrant shade of blonde hair and eyes.

But to make absolutely sure, "...Naruto?"

Groaning in pain and discomfort Naruto blinked repeatedly and looked up at her with squinted eyes, "Yeah...?"

With his voice all but confirming his identity Helen pulled down his shemagh scarf, and before Naruto could react she pressed her lips to his, fulfilling what she said she was going to do.

Stunned Naruto didn't return the kiss for the past few seconds. But once he got over it he really wanted to return it, because it felt nice. But priorities came first. So reluctantly he pushed Helen away causing her to pout.

"Now is not the best time to do this Helen." he told her.

Her pout became even more pronounced, "How come?"

She got her answer from the hungry howls and screams of the dead. And looking in the direction the noises came from she saw an entire horde descenting on them through the trench. Helen quickly got up and off of Naruto who in turn got up. Bringing Wrath of the Ancients to bare once more Naruto fired a few more arrows and the two blondes watched as the projectiles exploded in a fiery display of blood and dismembered limbs.

However despite how many he killed more and more kept replacing them, making the undead seemingly endless. Dismissing the bow Naruto took Helen by the wrist and pulled her on to the launch pad with him.

"Wait not thaaAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!" she started only for the words she wanted to say to change to her screaming as they were lunched off the floating island and back to the one they were on previously.

Naruto was able to keep his panic induced cursing to himself this time around and he looked behind him as he and Helen were launched through the void of space. He saw the zombies were after them. Having been launched by the pad as well. Growling the young man looked ahead and saw the starting area ahead of them.

And he saw the Keeper, along with Miria, Deneve, Clare and Jean, Cynthia and Yuma all staring up at them in bewilderment as they approached the ground. Helen was still screaming her head off as the floor rapidly descended upon them.

The seven women plus Keeper all vacated from the area of impact and a moment later both Naruto and Helen landed on the ground. The former quickly turning around and summoning the bow to his hand again. He took aim with it as he yelled out, his tone filled with controlled panic, "Keeper! We gotta get out of here! Right now!"

"What's going on?!" Miria demanded.

"No time!" Naruto told her just before he fired an arrow. They followed the arrow and their mouths dropped open and their eyes grew wide at the sheer amount of zombies coming. Even as the zombies in the front were blown out of the sky, it didn't make a dent in their numbers. More just replaced them.

"We need to get out of here before we become their chew toy!" he exclaimed, drawing and firing another arrow at the horde. The women all drew their blades as they got ready for a fight against a seemingly endless amount of enemies.

However the Keeper seeing as they had gotten who they had came for decided that was a good time as any to get them out of there. When the zombies were almost touching the ground the Keeper teleported everyone out of the realm they were in. Not a moment later the zombies touched the floor and howled to the void of space.

X.X.X.X

When they reappeared amongst the other 16 hybrids they jumped out of surprise at their sudden reappearance. Seeing as he was in a completely safe place Naruto with a sigh of relief and exhaustion fell back on his rear and closed his eyes and allowed his head to hang forward.

"Naruto!" Helen cried out in concern.

He quickly raised a hand to stop her, not that it actually stopped her from kneeling down beside him, and without opening his eyes said, "I'm fine. I'm just...resting for the moment. God I'm so tired..."

"I'll say." the haired haired woman said as she sat beside him. "How many of those things were there after you?"

"Too many to count." was the reply she and everyone else had gotten. "No matter how many I killed more just came. There was an entire army of those things after my head."

"What happened?" Flora asked unknowingly asking the question all the other hybrids that weren't there had in their minds.

"...It was...weird to say the least..." Miria began to retail everything she and the others had seen in that place. From the floating islands, to the houses, to the strange towers to the large source of light that is similar to a sun. Even going in to detail on what they had encountered.

"That is weird. And worrying." Flora commented.

"To think such a place exists!"

"A place where the dead walks? As if!"

"I don't know...if there are beings such as the Keeper then who's to say the dead do not walk?"

"How did you manage to survive for as long as you did?" while the other claymore's were talking amongst themselves about what the nine had seen and experienced, it was Veronica who asked this question. And she was directing it to Naruto.

Naruto tiredly opened his eyes and looked at the pony-tailed hybrid. "In short: tactical retreats. I knew I couldn't win in a direct fight; I would have been ripped to shreds if I tried." he said and clarified when he saw the look the woman was giving him.

"I saw wounds on the corpses that were similar to the one on Dae while we were there. I take it you caused that?" Miria asked this question; images of zombies having bullet holes on their bodies and heads flashed in her mind.

"Yeah. That was me." he confirmed and shrugged off the sling to show them the assault rifle the Keeper had given to him. "I did that by using this thing. I was not all that good using it to be honest. It's a lot different to using a musket." he added and watched with some amusement as the women all looked at it in dumbfoundment and in some cases with awe.

"It looks a little similar to the thing the Keeper had shown us in Pieta." Deneve pointed out.

"It does doesn't it?" he said with a small grin and then he placed the rifle on the snow covered ground beside him. He then glanced at Helen with a small smile, "Hey, Helen, remember when I told you about my home?" he suddenly asked.

Furrowing her brow in thought the short haired woman nodded and said, " Yeah. I remember. Why?"

"You saw a part of it in that shattered place." he informed her.

It didn't take long for her to realise what he meant. "The island we appeared on was-"

"Part of my home? Yes." he finished for her. "How it is there on the other hand, I have no clue."

"You weren't kidding when you said your homeland was more advanced than this place" Miria said as she sat down on the snowed ground with a sigh. "A lot of things inside of those houses I haven't gotten the slightest idea on what they do."

"A lot of things back home weren't re-discovered here yet." Naruto shrugged. Sighing he looked around their surroundings and frowned.

Deneve noticed this and asked with a concerned frown of her own, "What's the matter?"

"Just wondering how I'm going to survive in these conditions."

"We'll be fine! Don't worry about it!" Helen ran her gloved hand through his hair and ruffed them with a cheery smile.

Naruto made no attempt to stop her. In fact he closed and eyes and leaned in to her much to the woman's amusement. "Oh, I agree, you women will be fine. The cold doesn't affect you after all." he said; then he opened his eyes and pointed at himself with his thumb; he then added, "But I can get sick. And if I get sick, then there is a possibility that I'll die. And I like living."

Seeing an opportunity to tease him some more Helen put an arm over Naruto's shoulder and pulled him to her. Her fellow blonde didn't bother to resist this time around and just allowed her to do what she wanted. He was too tired to resist.

"I can keep you warm, kid! So buck up!" she cheerfully said with an equally cheerful smile. And everyone knew there was something about it. It was off. The smile was too sickingly sweet. Deneve gave her friend a warning look when she saw the mischievous look on Helen's face.

Naruto couldn't care less though. "Y'know what? I don't care how you're gonna keep me warm. Just keep hugging me."

Helen pouted in disappointment at his lack of reaction to her declaration. She had an entire response of her being naked to keep him warm planned out and everything! Darn it!

Deneve and Miria were amused at the look of disappointment on Helen's face but kept it hidden. Cynthia was outright giggling, making Helen glare weak heartedly at the pigtailed woman and Veronica lightly shook her head while pinching the bridge of her nose.

The others were either looking on in amusement or were good naturedly exasperated.

Sighing Helen looked down at Naruto, sighed again and leaned down to rest her face against his scalp. Naruto didn't react at all. She won't admit it, but she is happy to see that her week old companion is alive and unhurt. She was touched and downright terrified to learn he practically gave his life away to get them all to safety.

It goes to show he would risk life and limb for those he cared about. And if she ever managed to meet his parents, she'd make them regret selling him to the organization!


	6. Chapter 6

Primis

Chapter 5

Three Weeks & 3 days later

Naruto looked over at the pieces of his commando assault rifle again to make sure there was no defects or blocked mechanisms in it. This was becoming a common occurrence as of late. He wanted to know how to use the weapon effectively. Which means he needs to know the ins and outs of it in case it were to get jammed or damaged. As it is a weapon of the Old World it meant the technology to make more of it was lost; it can be rediscovered again but the likelihood of that happening is low.

Nevertheless he made due with what he has.

The survivors of Pieta had split into groups a few days after he had been recovered from that shattered realm; the less of them that are around the less likelihood they would get discovered by the organization. They were close to one another however so they weren't truly alone. They would also meet up regularly to help each other tone their abilities to even greater heights, while learning to completely suppress their yoki.

"You're checking that thing again?" came a voice Naruto was use to hearing by now. Helen sat down beside him and looked at the parts of the rifle with a look of disinterest. "I don't know why you're looking at the thing twice a day."

"The same reason you're training every day." he pointed out. Helen made a sound of realisation and looked at the others who were training to hone their abilities and create new skills for the inevitable encounter with the organization. "So how's your training coming along Helen?" he asked after putting one of the parts down so he wouldn't get distracted.

At that the short haired woman grinned cheerfully, "It's coming along great actually! Jean's been really helpful when it comes to using her Drill Sword." she was trying to figure out a way to make the length of its preparation shorter. No such luck so far.

"And the others?"

"Miria' is looking for a way to make her phantom faster. She keeps crashing into things." she sniggered at the image of their leader crashing face first into a tree. Or a mountain side. "Cynthia is trying manipulate her yoki and so on; she's also helping Yuma with yoki manipulation. Yuma is also working on throwing her sword as accurately as possible. Tabitha is learning how to fight without using yoki at all and to accurately sense people like us from a distance. Deneve is learning how to fight using two claymores at once and is augmenting her strength."

"Basically everyone is doing great." Naruto interrupted her.

Rather than be annoyed at getting interrupted Helen gave him another grin and nodded her head with a lot of enthusiasm. "Yep! We're doing great!" Helen couldn't help but feel giddy; they were learning to do new things and they were getting their already known abilities stronger. Not to mention Clare was learning to use Flora's Windcutter in order to replace it with the Quicksword; she needed a technique that was as fast as the Quicksword but didn't need to use yoki. Flora's Windcutter fit the bill and was getting the owner of said technique to help her out.

"Cool. Cool." after giving the parts a thorough look over Naruto put them back together piece by piece. He grabbed a magazine and slid it into its slot at the bottom and locked it into place. It roughly took him five to ten minutes to assemble it together.

"So what happened to the Keeper? I haven't seen it around lately." Helen asked as she looked around for the otherworldly being.

"It can't stay here indefinitely Helen." he pointed out, putting the reassembled CAR-15 back down before looking at her, "As for where it went. you remember it said about finding a trail to something?"

"Oh yeah." Helen scratched the back of her head and leaned back and looked at her fellow blonde. "What was it again? I kinda forgot." she admitted with a sheepish grin.

"It didn't say anything actually." he replied with a shake of his head and a sigh, "It just said it found a trail to something and just vanished. I have no idea what it is though." Naruto made a thoughtful noise and looked up. "You think it could related to the Old World?"

Helen shrugged, "Maybe? Whatever it finds I hope it's useful."

"I just hope it doesn't find something destructive. I've heard a few weapons of the Old World were powerful enough to partially destroy an entire city."

"Really?"

"Yeah. But that was just through word of mouth. No one actually knows if the Old World had weapons on that scale."

Helen let out a shudder, if weapons on that scale existed and the organization had their hands on them...she dreads the very thought of that being reality. No one should have that kind of power. No one.

"Anyway," she began getting back up, "I'm going to get back to training. Jean is looking a little impatient." Naruto looked at Jean and he could see she was looking a bit impatient. "I'll talk to you later, kid." Helen said and ruffled his hair before walking over to her training partner while waving over her shoulder at Naruto.

Chortling Naruto shook his head and stood up to stretch. Taking the Commando he slid his arm through the sling and slung it over his shoulder before going out to explore. Another thing he was doing regularly: exploring.

These mountains stretched for miles. It took a while to get to the bottom of them. Not to mention the cold was uncomfortable for him. Thank god the snow was gone; it is still chilly for his liking but his clothes mostly did their job in keeping his heat in.

The others didn't say anything as he left. It was a regular thing he did and they all knew he would be back after a while. Sometimes longer depending on the route he'd take.

X.X.X.X

Naruto walked down the dirt path as he cautiously scanned his surroundings. Just because the hybrids were around didn't mean he can slack around when it comes to walking. He can still get ambushed. He wants to avoid that as much as possible.

When he came to a split path Naruto took the right. He's been to the left far too many times now and took the right roughly around five or six times during the weeks and three days he's been in the mountains. He didn't know why but every time he took this path, the right path, everything felt a little...off. Like something unnatural was in the air.

It felt sickening.

He told everyone else about it but they brushed it off. Miria even told him to not bring it to their attention after the tenth time.

Well, as the saying goes: if you want something done right, then you should do it yourself.

After half an hour of walking Naruto felt it. A feeling of dread. It was faint but noticeable. Instead of turning back like he normally would the blonde brought up his CAR-15 and walked towards it; he walked off the path and with each step he took the feeling of dread steadily increased. Breathing shakingly through his nose Naruto brought the barrel up of the assault rifle up and scanned his surroundings.

Nothing so far but there was a sense of unease in the atmosphere.

Taking a deep breath Naruto lowered the assault rifle to his waist and kept following the feeling. It's stupid of him to do this but seeing as no one believes him it falls to him to find out what the hell is causing this.

It wasn't until he stepped on something he stopped. Looking down at the ground Naruto frowned suspiciously and moved his foot somewhere else. Then he moved it back. The ground was uneven here. Suspiciously uneven. Almost like there was something underneath.

Looking around for a moment Naruto looked back to the ground before, slinging his CAR-15 back and kneeling down to start digging into the earth. Ten minutes later he felt something. And by the sound of his gloved hand touching it, the material hidden under the earth is solid and hard.

"What on earth...?" he pulled away and his face showed confusion. He found metal. Naruto dug out the earth a bit more, taking out chunks at a time until he got a more clear view of what he had. After roughly an hour or two had passed Naruto had finished digging the rest of it out. Rubbing his forehead with his forearm a panting Naruto stood up and took a few steps back, "Why is this out here?"

It was a metal door. A metal trap door that was hidden. And it was rusted. Making an interesting sound and ignoring the feeling of dread, Naruto moved behind the hatch bent down and pulled on it with a strained grunt.

The metal hinges that were rusting under the ground for an untold number of years groaned in protest. After a few strong tugs and sore arms and fingers the trap door opened up with a horrible screech.

"Ah! Crap that hurts!" he hissed shaking his hand and moving his fingers to get some feeling back into them. Inhaling and exhaling Naruto moved in front of the trap door and peered inside. The light showed stairs that went down fairly deep. He could see the end of it thankfully.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained, Naruto walked down the stairs while he brought his CAR-15 up at the same time. He checked the sensor to see if it picked up anything; it showed everything was clear. Sighing Naruto closed the monitor and made his way further into the underground complex.

Slowly Naruto's eyes began to adjust to the darkness; he was able to see partially through it but not much. Following the corridor and taking several corners that went one way Naruto found himself in a wide and open room. He could see a lot of cobwebs in the shadows.

There was a single sarcophagus in the middle of it; along with a tall statue of a young man with trimmed hair, wearing medieval armour. A surcoat over mail with a strange circular symbol on it; plate boots and gloves. Held in his hands was a sword. But one thing he saw was the statue being helmet-less.

The feeling of dread was still there; it was stronger, much stronger and hard to ignore but bearable.

"Why would a tomb be here?" Naruto asked aloud with barely veiled confusion. He wasn't expecting an answer, so imagine his surprise when someone _did_ talk back to him.

"Why indeed."

Naruto quickly turned around and brought up his commando at the same time in the direction the voice came from. He didn't recognise it. It was masculine, gruff, and spoke with authority. To his stunned disbelief Naruto watched as a man, a spectre, appeared before his eyes, walking towards him as the sounds of plate armour clanking the ground echoed through the room.

As he got closer Naruto could see that the man was fairly young with dark brown hair, and a rough beard. The man is in his late 20s to early 30s if he had to guess. He had a strong, professional look about him; a similar look his mother and father use to have when he last saw them.

This man was a trained solider. And he was wearing the same kind of armour as the statue.

"It's been a long time since I saw you kid. Or anyone stepping into this tomb for that matter." the man said.

"Who are you?" Naruto asked questionably.

The spectre frowned and crossed his arms, "You don't remember?" at the blank look the ghost got he elaborated, "The Apothicons? The zombies? You don't remember any of that?"

"Zombies? Those walking corpses? I briefly fought them a month ago." he remembered the yoma and that shattered world he had been too. "As for these Apothicons? I never heard of them." he paused and gave the spectre a searching look. "How do you know me anyway? I never saw you before in my life."

The spectre let out a sigh like growl as he rubbed the back of his head, "Shit. If the zombies are back then that means the Apothicons are back too. Or are at least aware." with another sigh the spectre turned around and began to pace back and forth. Then he stopped and looked at the teenager with reluctance as he asked, "Did you fight any Margwa's?"

"...Did they have three heads and spiky tentacle arms?"

Naruto was taken aback at how disturbed the man's mannerisms were. "Oh fuck they're actually here!?" Naruto took a step back when the spectre got up in his face. "What's the world's like now after the last Human-Apothicon war!?" because when he was still alive the world had been almost destroyed with much of the technology being lost or destroyed.

"I don't know much, but back home we have muskets and gun-powder, along with cannons and the like. We also have electricity and have steam trains and stuff. Here, however, everyone is still using swords, bows and arrows. As far as I know they have no advanced technology."

The spectre growled and pinched the bridge of his nose, "It sounds like your homeland is in the late industrial/early modern period." he said and threw his arm out to gesture around, "And this place, here, it sounds as if they're in the early Medieval period. Could be the Dark Ages though."

"Industrial? Modern? Medieval? Dark Ages? What are those?" Naruto looked so confused; he never heard of these terminologies before.

"They're periods from before my time. Except Modern, that is my era." the spectre turned to look at the statue of himself.

"How did you stop them the first time?" Naruto asked as he stood beside the ghost.

"We used a weapon many countries had piled their resources to make. It kicked the Apothicons out of our dimension. And if they're coming back then this weapon is going to be needed again." the man sighed. "Unfortunately it sounds like you don't have the technology to make it."

"What are our chances on killing an Apothicon?"

"It depends on what type of Apothicon you're fighting. The Margwa's are smaller versions of Apothicons'. Seeing as you need to destroy their heads, if all you have are muskets and cannons in your homeland then you're in for a tough fight. Anywhere else well..."

They wouldn't have much of a chance against them. That wasn't ominous at all.

"...right. Err. What other Apothicons' are there?" Naruto asked, as he coughed into his hand.

"Well. You have the Margwa's. The annoying three mouthed pieces of shit. Then you have giant space faring squids. Think of the highest, widest thing you can imagine – then times that by a thousand." the ghost said.

Naruto was in disbelief. "That's...fucking hell, that can't be possible!"

"It is possible. Hell, I saw plenty of 'em when I was still alive kid! If one, just one, of those zombie making assholes get here nothing we have will even hurt it." he sighed and clasped his hands behind his back. If only the wonder weapons were still around they were the only things that could hurt 'em.

"There has to be something..."

"There is. But the likelihood of you getting them is very unlikely."

"I'm going to take a wild guess and say you're talking about weapons. Insanely powerful weapons."

"I am." the spectre nodded with affirmativeness. "But with how much that has been lost to time, I'm not going to hold my fucking hopes up."

The room was filled with silence. Naruto tilt his head to the side as he looked between the spectre and the statue repeatedly.

"What is your name?" Naruto asked him after fifteen minutes of long, suffocating silence.

"Heh. The name's 'Tank' Dempsey." Naruto caught his breath upon hearing the name of the ghost. Holy fucking shit! He's talking to one of the Legendary Four! Dempsey didn't seem to notice the reaction the reveal of his name had caused as he asked without missing a beat, "What about you? What's your name kid?"

"N-Naruto Namikaze." then Naruto remembered what Tank had said before. "If you know me then why did you ask for my name? And how do you know me? You never did answer that."

"Kid I was here for a very long time." Dempsey said. "Names and faces can be forgotten. As for how I know you, well in my past we fought the Apothicons side by side, back to back. We got separated at the end though and we never did see you again." he grunted as he brought his hand to his chin. "But if you're not the kid I remember, and this is a different time period then you not remembering makes sense." he murmured before giving Naruto a direct look, "How many years has it been since I died?"

"I don't know. A rough estimate would be two to three thousand years."

"Jesus. That long?" the man breathed with a stunned look on his face. He looked at Naruto again and looked him over, he pointed at his attire and weapon asked, "If that much time had passed, then how come you're wearing clothes and carrying a weapon from my era?"

"I found it. And the Assault Rifle was given to me." Naruto truthfully answered the spectre. Dempsey couldn't help the skeptical look that crept on his face. "It's true! Swear to god I found the clothes and I was given this weapon." he added upon seeing the look Dempsey was giving him.

"Uh-huh..."

"Really I did."

"I believe you." he really didn't.

"Really? Because the expression on your face and the tone you're using says otherwise!"

"It's how I always look and sound."

"Bullshit!"

Dempsey was sniggering silently at the reaction the kid was having towards him. It's pretty damn funny to be honest. And refreshing. But even still, even though this isn't the same Naruto he barely remembers' it was nice seeing him again.

"By the way kid, if you want to turn on the lights there should be a power switch nearby. Hopefully it's still working."

X.X.X.X

Six hours later

Helen tutted in annoyance and irritation at the lack of progress she was having in preforming Jean's Drill Sword. It still took far too long for her to get it ready. Not to mention twisting her arm around several time was a strain on her arm. Stretching it was no problem; she was use to that but twisting it several times was difficult.

"Let's stop here for now Helen." Jean told her.

Helen had to qualms with that. Her entire arm felt stiff and crooked from the strain she put it under while trying to get her technique down. Sighing in relief as she bent and straightened her arm Helen looked around to see if Naruto was around.

He wasn't.

She found this to be odd because he would normally be back by now.

"Did anyone see Naruto around?" she asked.

Her comrades all shook their heads in the negative. Helen got a little concerned. Closing her eyes Miria sighed and as she opened them again she turned to address the concerned hybrid.

"Do you know where he would be at this time?" she asked.

"Apart from being here?" Helen shook her head in the negative. "I don't have the slightest idea."

Helen and Miria both looked to Yuma who said, "Um...he did say he felt something unnatural when he was exploring the mountains. Several times."

"That was just a figment of his imagination." Miria dismissed the idea as she didn't believe in superstitious things like that.

"But what if they weren't?" Yuma shot back. "What if he is telling the truth and is in trouble right now, because none of us took him seriously?"

"Yuma has a point Captain." Tabitha said; she joined Miria, Helen and Yuma with Flora, Jean, Deneve, Clare and Cynthia trailing behind her. "With beings like the Margwa-"

"And the walking dead!" Helen added helpfully.

"-and the walking dead around he could be in trouble right now, as we speak." the braided, plait haired woman finished as though she had not been interrupted.

Pinching the bridge of her nose Miria let out an irritated sigh. "Alright. A few of us will go and look for him." she said before turning to address Helen. "Since he is your responsibility you're going to lead the search. Being no more than two with you."

Helen shrugged with a look of indifference that betrayed the worry she was feeling. "Alright. Deneve, Flora wanna come with?"

Deneve nodded and went to get her claymore that she had discarded when her training was finished for the day. Flora who already had her claymore equipped nodded as well and waited for Deneve to get her weapon.

"Alright. Let's go!" Helen declared once Deneve rejoined them.

"Don't use your yoki! We don't want to give ourselves away to the Organization!" Miria told them as they walked down the dirt path Naruto had taken.

Helen waved at her from over her shoulder with no concern. "We know Miria. We won't be giving ourselves away any time soon."

Miria, Clare, Cynthia, Jean, Yuma and Tabitha momentarily watched as Helen and Deneve and Flora followed the path Naruto had taken. And as the trio got further and further away the group of six dispersed one by one until only Miria was left. It wasn't until they were completely out of her line of sight that Miria turned away.

Helen, Deneve and Flora had followed the dirt path until they reached the split path. They took the right because they remembered it as the one Naruto saying he felt something unnatural. They didn't feel anything when they took the path everything felt normal.

It wasn't until a half an hour later, where Naruto had went off the road, that they felt it. The feeling of dread filling their souls. Helen and Deneve and Flora stopped and as they put themselves back to back they reached for their blade.

"He wasn't lying." Flora said.

Helen gave a wary nod, "Yeah. If this was what he felt I can see why he tried to tell us." she scowled scoldingly at herself, "I should've believed him."

"We all should have. And if he's in trouble then it will be up to us to get him out of it." Deneve told her.

While the three of them knew Naruto can take care of himself, he is still a young man. A normal young man who tires a lot faster than hybrids such as them would. It would be a matter of time before he slips up.

"Can you tell where it's coming from?" Flora questioned.

"...yeah..." Deneve cautiously walked off the path as she pulled her claymore out from its back mounted scabbard. "It's coming from over here."

Helen and Flora exchanged looks before they followed after the pixie-haired woman and pulled out their own swords from its sheathe. Eventually they found the hatch Naruto opened and entered and the women could feel the dreadfulness emitting from within. It was noticeable and bearable. Exchanging another look they all nodded at the same time and walked down the staircase one by one.

They followed the corridor and winced as their footsteps echoed off the walls. The women followed the corridor and turned a lot of corners and as they were reaching up to the final corner they could see a blinking light at the end of it along with the sounds of a person faintly talking.

Feeling worried Helen hastened her pace and took the lead with Deneve and Flora trailing behind. Eventually they came upon a wide and open room with blinking roof-mounted stage lights that were blinking.

As they entered Helen, Deneve and Flora found a single sarcophagus in the middle of the room; behind the stone coffin, seemingly looming over it, with a tall statue of a young man with trimmed hair, wearing medieval armour. A surcoat over mail with a strange circular symbol on it; plate boots and gloves. Held in his hands was a sword similar to the one they saw Naruto wield. But the statue wasn't Naruto however, it was of a man in his late 20s to early 30s.

And they could hear two people talking. One of whom they know and the other a complete stranger. They were acting as though they were friends for decades. And from the sound of things, they were in the middle of a conversation.

"-ained you to use muskets? At the age of 13?" Dempsey incredulously questioned.

"Yeah. The first time I ever fired one knocked me on my ass. It wasn't a 'pleasant' experience." Naruto answered.

"No kidding. From the way your holding your shoulder I guess the 'kick' of the rifle dislocated your shoulder?"

"Yep. It hurt like a bitch getting it back into place."

It was to their great shock that next to a low whirring generator that had a light orange substance travelling through it, was Naruto and Dempsey. They were greatly shocked because Dempsey was transparent. Naruto was casually talking to a fricking ghost.

"So lay it onto me kid: why did your parents really treat you like crap? And don't give me any bull about you not being good enough for what they had in mind for you."

"I honestly don't know Dempsey. They just...started treating me differently one day. It was subtle at first. I didn't notice any difference in them. But as the months past and I got older it became more and more..." he trailed off

"Noticeable?" Dempsey offered.

"Yeah. Noticeable." Naruto sighed. "Eventually after failing to do good at anything they wanted me to do for several years, they just lost faith in me. My sisters were the same; although they were more understanding and supportive for a while." frowning thoughtfully Naruto looked down at the floor and made a thinking noise. Neither of them noticed Flora, Deneve and Helen approaching thanks to the whirring of the generator.

"Something on your mind?" the spectre asked.

Slowly Naruto nodded. "Yeah. There's a large gap in my memory. That was when my parents were beginning to act differently. When I try to remember I come up with nothing. There's just...nothing there."

"Amnesia?"

"Yeah there's a gap between the ages seven to 12-" both Naruto and Dempsey were interrupted when they heard someone clear their throat; they turned their heads and found Helen, Deneve and Flora staring at them. Though the latter two were giving Dempsey a wary look. Naruto was really surprised to see them in the tomb. "Helen, Deneve, Flora! What're you doing here?"

"We came looking for you!" Helen said and pulled him into a hug to Dempsey's bemusement. "Do you know how long you were missing for?" she said while pulling back to look down at him and when he shook his head in the negative she exclaimed, "Six hours! Six!"

"Seriously?"

"Yes! For the love of god I thought you were in trouble or worse!" Deneve pinched the bridge of her nose at her friends antics and Flora was nervously looking between the ghost and Naruto and Helen. Helen seemed to be ignoring the ghost for the moment.

Dempsey sniggered and said with an amused grin, "Heh. Looks like you got yourself a worried girlfriend, kid."

"She's not my girlfriend. She's a friend." Naruto corrected him and Dempsey raised his hands in an almost teasing, yet placating manner.

Ignoring the pang in her chest at the dismissal Helen looked at the ghost and very slowly leaned down until she was cheek to cheek with Naruto. "...Who's the ghost?"

Instead of Naruto answering, it was Dempsey who answered, and he left it purposely vague. "I am a remnant of a time long past."

"Should they know?" Naruto questioned after a moment of tense silence.

Dempsey full knowing what the kid was asking shrugged with indifference. "Might as well. It won't change anything as far as I know."

"But it can change everything." Naruto said who knew his existence would change everything, and knowing Miria's personality and thirst for knowledge and desire to take down the organization, she would personally want to come down here to see him for herself.

Dempsey glanced at Naruto from the corner of his eye. "We'll see, kid." said the spectre as he looked at the three hybrids again with a thin frown. "We'll see."

"So who are you exactly?" Deneve asked as she could see that her best friend was becoming a little annoyed at the way the two men were ignoring them all.

Naruto and Dempsey exchanged looks then they looked at Helen, Deneve and Flora. The spectre leaned back, arms crossed, looking as if he were sizing them up. And just when it seemed like he wasn't going to answer, he did and his answer shook them to the core.

"My name is Dempsey. 'Tank' Dempsey." and Naruto watched as the three hybrids reacted to his introduction to them.

"Whoa, wait, what?!"

"That can't be possible, you would be over two thousand years old!"

"This has to be some sort of joke. No one can be alive for that long."

As they reacted in denial to the revelation of them being in a presence of a legend Dempsey looked at Naruto from the corner of his eyes. He saw that Naruto was fairly calm. It wasn't surprising they were denying the pure fact he was still around, even though he was dead, it was getting a little annoying. Irritating. For his tastes. Being in a tomb for over a thousand years by themselves would do that to a person.

"In case you three haven't noticed yet: Dempsey is transparent. See through. He's not alive." Naruto pointed out to them, even running a hand through the man's torso to emphasis his statement, to show he wasn't lying, even though Helen said he was a ghost minutes prior.

Dempsey had a look of irritation on his face when Naruto ran his hand through his transparent body. But it had done the trick in shutting them up and Helen pressed her palm against her forehead and shook her head from side to side.

Lowering her hand Helen smirked as she gave Naruto a fond look. "First that decayed yoma. Then the Margwa. After that a shattered world full of floating islands and now this? You are a magnet for odd things aren't ya' kid?"

Naruto gave a nonchalant shrug with a small smile, "What can I say? It's both a gift and a curse."

"So what happens now? Miria is going to want to know about this." Flora said.

"And what about that dreaded feeling we felt coming here?" Deneve added on, directing the question to Dempsey himself since he would be the only one to have an answer to that.

"Yeah, what was that all about anyway?" Naruto asked as he looked at the spectre.

"That is a safety mechanism meant to ward people away." Dempsey stroked his chin, "And if what I remember of the technical mumbo jumbo is right, then, once those who are brave enough to press on through, and enter here, then it won't affect them any more as soon as they leave."

"So we won't feel it anymore?" Helen asked for clarification.

"I just said that."

"I'm just making sure." Helen then started to chuckle and she rubbed her hands together in a devious manner. "Oh-ho, Captain Miria is going to love this."

Flora was now standing beside the generator and is looking at it with fascination and awe. She heard stories of the technological marvels of the Old World. And excluding Naruto's CAR-15 and his own unique bow and sword stories was all she heard. But now here she was, standing before a working machine of the old world that by all rights should not be working.

"What is this contraption?" questioned Flora as she gave Dempsey a questioning look.

Dempsey looked over his shoulder. "Ah. This old thing? That would be a generator." he turned around and placed his gauntlet covered hand on it. "It's a complicated piece of machinery. But let me give you an example: you know candles and lanterns?"

"Yeah." Flora replied with Helen and Deneve vocalising their knowledge of them too.

"Well like a candle and lantern a generator can be used to light up dark places." Dempsey gestured to the ceiling above and the lights that are attached to various walls to light up the room.

"Is that all it can do?" Deneve questioned.

"Oh no. Generators can be used for a lot of things. Heat, cooking and lighting are a few examples."

"How is it still working?" because the generator has been underground for the past few thousand years. Two to three thousand years to be more accurate. To be here for that long with no maintenance, it should have broken down a long time ago.

"I haven't got the faintest idea to be honest" he stroked his chin with a thoughtful frown. And then, moments later, a memory popped up. It was faint; it came from a long time ago when he was still alive, but,... "Hmm. Wait. There may be something. There was a power source so powerful it could theoretically last for an eternity."

The words went completely over Helen's head. "English please?"

"The Old World found a power source that could potentially last forever. He just said that."

Helen gave Naruto a flat look. "Not all of us came from a land that is more advanced, kid. You'll have to dumb it down for us."

"Actually I could understand what the ghost meant." a sheepish Flora said with a raised finger.

"And something tells me that was his version of 'dumbing things down'." Deneve added before looking at the spectre. "Right?"

"Yeah. I was never one for any science stuff that was Richtofen's turf. I was more along the lines of guns and blowing shit up. Huh, speaking of Richtofen, I wonder how he is." Dempsey trailed off before he started walking off in a random direction in the room.

"He's dead too isn't he?" Naruto asked as he, Helen and Deneve and Flora followed after the spectre. "They all are."

The ghost didn't answer as he stopped at the base of his statue and looked up at it. Eventually the ghost scoffed, "Of course he's dead. Richtofen, Takeo, Nikolai, me. We're all dead. But let me ask you this..." Dempsey turned to look at the four from halfway over his shoulder. "If I am here as a ghost, then what are the chances of the others being here as ghosts as well?" with that question asked Dempsey turned to look back up at his statue. "I don't expect an answer. Just...think on it."

"Okay." Naruto looked at Helen, Deneve and Flora. "We better get going now."

"Yeah." said Helen who nodded affirmatively. "That was why we came here in the first place." placing a hand on Naruto's shoulder Helen began to guide him out of the room. Deneve and Flora kept their eyes on Dempsey though as they followed them out.

"I'll see you again soon 'Tank'. Hopefully tomorrow!" Naruto called out as they were entering the corridor.

"I'll be looking forward to it." Dempsey called out in reply. He looked down at his gauntlet covered hand and clenched it, "I'll be looking forward to it." he quietly repeated to himself. With one last look over his shoulder Dempsey nodded to himself, almost reassuringly, exhaled and closed his eyes. Not long after he started to fade away until he was no longer there.

The whirring noise of the generator continued to fill the room.


	7. Chapter 7

Primis

Chapter 6

When they emerged from the tomb Naruto, Helen, Deneve and Flora looked back at the trap door. Then after a short moment of silence Naruto went over and closed it with a strained grunt. Helen went over and helped him close it after seeing him struggle to move it. Their combined strength allowed them both to close the door with some difficulty.

Rubbing his hands Naruto looked at Helen and Deneve and Flora and gestured them to lead on. They silently left the area together and went back to the mountains where the others are waiting.

"Looks like the ghost was telling the truth. That uneasy feeling is gone now." Flora said.

"Everyone else is going to feel it though if we manage to convince them to come here." said Helen as she interlocked her fingers behind her head.

"Yeah." Naruto let out a sigh and shoved his hands into the pockets of his trench coat.

"What were you and Dempsey talking about before we came along anyway?" Helen asked Naruto after several minutes of walking in comfortable silence. Flora and Deneve were curious themselves but kept quiet as Helen asked what they were unknowingly thinking.

"General stuff about my homeland and what experiences I got from there." Naruto told her; it wasn't anything new since he pretty much told her about his homeland. "I learned something interesting from him as well."

"What was it?" a curious Flora asked.

"It turns out that Dempsey knows me, from two to three thousand years ago." that answer got all three of them stop and look back at Naruto with wide stunned eyes, with an equally stunned look on their pretty faces.

"Wait, what? How the hell can that be possible?"

"I don't understand it myself." he said as they continued on their way back to the other hybrids. "But according to 'Tank' I fought side by side with Primis and got separated; we never saw each other again after that." he rubbed the back of his head with a thoughtful frown pulling at his lips. "It doesn't make sense though; I don't remember him or anyone else who were part of Primis."

"Are you sure you're the same person the ghost knew in the Old World?" Deneve questioned.

"He pretty much said he isn't." Helen pointed out.

"No, he only said he doesn't remember. That is two completely different things." Deneve corrected her best friend.

"I am sure Deneve." Naruto said. "I could be a reincarnation of the Naruto that Dempsey use to know all those centuries ago. But that's just speculation on my part. They never did find his body so his spirit could still be out there somewhere or something."

"Or you could be him." Deneve pointed out.

"But I'm not. I'm certain of that."

"I'm just saying, the possibility is there." to the pixie-haired woman it made a lot more sense as to why the Keeper was interested in him if Naruto was there in the past. While the logicalness of the idea is absurd, to her Naruto being in the past, fighting side by side with Primis and their allies just clicked. It answered some questions like why did the Keeper suddenly show up out of the blue a month ago, why the undead yoma kept on saying Primis when it was trying to kill him. Why one of the Keeper's ancient enemy just suddenly showed up.

"...True...that is...very true." he had to give it to her there. The possibility of him, and it being a very unlikely possibility, of coming from the past is there. Not to mention there is a gap in his memory, just before his parents started to treat him differently.

Could that have something to do with him possibly being from the past or was it just some strange accident? No one ever did tell him what had happened to give him amnesia.

With those thoughts lingering in his mind Naruto, Helen, Deneve and Flora walked back on to the path and followed the dirt path back to the mountains where Miria and the others are.

X.X.X.X

When they finally arrived Miria and the others were sitting around a camp fire and were eating some fruit they had found a little while ago. Seeing some apples bigger than her hand Helen immediately went over and took a couple for herself, Deneve and Flora and Naruto to eat.

"What took you?" Cynthia questioned with honest curiosity after swallowing the fruit in her mouth.

"We were caught up in something." Helen replied as she chucked three of the apples to her best friend, Flora and Naruto. They caught the apples and as Deneve and Flora took their seat amongst the others while Helen put an arm around Naruto's shoulder. "He was telling the truth Miria. About the unsettling feeling in the air. He was telling the truth."

Miria sighed and gave the hybrid a small frown; the others stared on in interest. "Helen as I told Naruto before there is nothing there. There is nothing unnatural in these mountains." she looked at Naruto and narrowed her eyes at him. "I don't know how you've convinced Helen but this is the last time I will tolerate a lie such as this."

"Helen and Naruto are not lying, Captain Miria. I was there, I can vouch for them." Flora said.

"I can vouch for them too. Naruto is not lying. We can take you there if you don't believe us." Deneve added and Miria looked between the four of them with a small look of annoyance on her face.

"Look it's obvious that Miria isn't going to believe us. I mean it's not like she's going to go and check it out because we found something interesting." The way Naruto said all of that made Miria look at him with a questioning expression.

"What are you talking about?" Miria asked with Cynthia, Yuma, Clare, Tabitha and Jean all quietly watching and listening to the conversation with interest.

"The thing we found? It dates all the way back to the Old World." Helen said with a nonchalant shrug.

That had really gotten their attention but none more than Miria for obvious reasons. Miria put down the fruit she was eating and looked between Naruto, Helen, Deneve and Flora with a very well concealed look of interest.

"Really? You found something that dates all the way back to the Old World?" Miria questioned them.

"Well it's more of a tomb. Had a statue of the man buried there and everything. But you're not gonna be interested in that kind of stuff anyway. You don't believe in 'supernatural nonsense' after all." Naruto said with a dismissive wave of his hand. He was doing his damned best at being vague and mysterious, and intentionally withholding the info from the long haired woman in an attempt to spark her interest.

Helen saw what Naruto was trying to do and truth be told she was all for it! Inwardly chortling Helen put up a façade of indifference and sighed. "The statue was particularly interesting. The armour the statue had on looks kinda similar to the Keeper now that I think about."

Naruto shook his head and said, "No. I think you're remembering the symbol on the statue's torso. It had a weird circular symbol on it." and it looked like something you would see engraved on to a tomb.

"Oh yeah...kinda like the Keeper now that I think about it." the short haired woman said with Naruto saying the last word with Helen at the same time.

Miria furrowed her brow as she frowned thoughtfully and went over their words analytically. The tombs statue had a strange circular symbol, sort of like the symbol on the Keeper's torso, and the tomb itself dated back to the Old World. Her brow crinkled even more as idea after idea went through her head.

Then the answer came to her like a large sack of bricks smashing the ground from a ten storey drop. "You found a tomb belonging to one of the Legendary Four." Naruto wasn't even surprised, having been with them for three weeks he figured out she was very observant and analystic about things.

He nodded his head in confirmation "Yes, I have. And more than that. Put it this way, there was a ghost from the past there." Literally in this case. And Miria was a smart woman, she should be able to figure that out on her own.

She squinted at the young man, staring at him with suspicious eyes with the others looking between the two with a high amount of interest. "Are you going to go back?" she eventually asked.

Naruto nodded his head. "Yes. Tomorrow. After we all get some rest."

Miria nodded in acceptance. Yes waiting until tomorrow would be the smart thing to do. Once they're well rested. Once everyone was finished eating, they went in the cave to turn themselves in for a long rest and embedded their claymore's into the ground before leaning back against it. Naruto went to his own spot and sat back against the cave wall.

Watching the others closing their eyes and going to sleep it didn't take Naruto long to follow after them. His eyes slowly closed, with his head lowering until it was hanging down; minutes later Naruto was fast asleep.

X.X.X.X

A thirteen year old Naruto sat in his room by himself. Laying on the floor face up to the ceiling the thirteen year old had his eyes closed; asleep and seemingly unaware of the world around him.

"Can't you see Minato!? There is something wrong with him!" Naruto twitched as he heard a faint, but familiar voice yell at someone. His mother. Why did she say that?

"There is nothing wrong with him Kushina. He's doing perfectly fine." Naruto twitched again and moved his head slightly upon hearing the familiar voice of his father; and like his mum, Naruto's dad sounded a younger.

"Fine? FINE?! He can't remember what happened between the ages seven to twelve Minato! He's lost nearly a decade of his life thanks to that bloody boulder!" Naruto softly grunted when he heard the faint shouting of his mum and the failings of his father to try and keep her calm.

"It'll pass Kushina, don't worry." was Minato's reassuring voice. "We're getting rid of it so no one else will share the same fate. Afterwards we'll try to see if Naruto can still do things other children can."

"And if he doesn't? What then?" Naruto slowly opened his eyes and looked towards the partially open bedroom door.

"If he doesn't, then it will be up to us to make sure he can." The way Minato said that with such confidence made the young Naruto frown. Why were they talking as if something was wrong with him? He may not remember the past several years, but that didn't mean nothing was wrong with him.

"There's nothing wrong with you." Naruto looked to his bed when he heard an old man speak to him in a kindly manner. White hair and a similar coloured beard, a receding hairline; clothes consisting of a dark green and red lined jacket with a blue buttoned shirt worn underneath, a pair of black fingerless gloves, black trousers and shoes.

"Ah ah ah, there's no need to speak little one. No one but you can hear me." the man said as Naruto opened his mouth to talk. Slowly nodding to show he understood Naruto closed his lips and sat up cross legged and turned around to look at the man.

The question he was projecting was easy to see: who are you?

"I go by many names. But you can call me Doctor Monty." the now named Doctor Monty answered.

Naruto cocked his head to the side; the question, 'why are you here?' was showing on his face.

Chortling to himself Doctor Monty groaned as he pushed himself off of the bed and walked to the window with his hands behind his back.

"You know you are not the first person to have lost their memory by touching that stone." Monty said as he stared at the large town on the opposite end of the window and knowing he had captured Naruto's attention he continued. "You most certainly will not be the last either. The side effects it has on its victims will linger." he suddenly turned around and gave Naruto a look full of pity. "Now don't worry the memory loss won't last. You will get your memory back. Eventually. But the side effects unfortunately will always be there. I am afraid your parents are fighting a lost cause."

Naruto got upset. But he didn't cry. Instead he hugged his legs and tightly closed his eyes. He snapped his eyes open and looked up when he felt Monty thread his hands in his hair and rub them. Like a grandfather would.

He had a grandfatherly smile on his face. "Don't worry. While you may have lost a lot of things you have improved in one thing. Trust in this old man when I say it will help you in the future. But...I'll get you figure out what you're good at for yourself. There'd be no fun in its discovery otherwise!"

And then just like that he was gone. Startled Naruto quickly got up and wildly looked around his room. The man is just vanished.

It was here that Minato and Kushina, his parents, entered the room and when Naruto looked at them he saw Minato was looking at him with a patent smile, while Kushina looked like she was straining to do the same. She was upset but was trying to hide it.

The father gave his son a patent smile and as he offered his hand, Minato said. "Naruto please come with us for a moment. We need to check something."

Not seeing anything wrong with that Naruto got up and walked over to his mum and dad. He took the larger hand of his father' and allowed him to guide him out of the room.

X.X.X.X

When Naruto awoke from his dream he quickly sat up; confused he looked around and found everyone was still asleep. With a furrowed brow he looked out towards the cave and found the sun was rising. Exhaling he got up, grabbed his CAR-15 and walked out.

He wasn't surprised to know his body wasn't stiff from sitting in one spot for hours. Quick Revive did help out a lot when it comes to recovering.

As he stared at the coloured sky Naruto pondered on his dream and what it meant. It was four years since he first encountered the strange old man. Four years since he last heard the man speak. To be completely honest he had completely forgotten about the old man.

He never did find out what he was good at. Well except for using guns, like the musket. Although how he managed to quickly adapt to them was a little otherworldly.

Walking over to a nearby stump Naruto sat in front of it and began the process of taking his assault rifle apart and putting it together again. A few minutes later Naruto looked to the cave when he hard someone walking out. Helen clad with her armour and sword was the first to walk into the open with her eyes closed and her hand covering her mouth as she yawned.

"Hey Helen." Naruto greeted her before going back to looking over the parts of his assault rifle.

Opening one eye Helen and saw Naruto was looking over the pieces of his weapon. Again. "Hey kid. You're looking over your weapon again?" she asked as she went over to join him.

"Yeah. I got to make sure it's functioning properly after all."

Sitting on the ground beside him Helen looked at the parts of the assault rifle with a bored look. "While I admit it's effective I still don't see the point in them when we have bows and arrows."

"Arrows you can see going through the air." Naruto then took out one of the bullets and showed Helen it to emphasise his next point. "Bullets that are this size and go faster than the speed of sound is very hard to defend against. Not to mention they're hard to see." he then put the bullet back in its magazine.

Helen didn't really have anything to say to counter that. Arrows can be heard whistling through the air and they can be seen as well. Bullets can be heard exiting the barrel of a gun but that's pretty much it. She was unable to hear or see the bullet three weeks and a few days ago.

As Naruto put his rifle back together the rest of the seven began to file out one by one. All of them were armoured and had their claymores on their backs as well. He was expecting them to begin training since it was all they ever did for the past three weeks. Instead they watched as Miria walked over to Helen and himself and stared at him.

"You're not training?" Naruto questioned Miria as he slung the assault rifle over his shoulder.

Miria crossed her arms and said in a no nonsense tone, "No. Instead we're going to see this tomb you went to yesterday."

A single eyebrow raised Naruto leaned slightly to the side in order to look at the other women behind her. They were quietly standing watching them.

Shrugging nonchalantly Naruto beckoned Miria to follow him as he said, "Alright. Follow me then."

As he walked Miria looked at the rest of her defector comrades' and beckoned them to follow her before following after Naruto.

As they walked down the dirt path Naruto kept a close eye on his surroundings, while Miria and the others were keeping their guard up. Using a small trace of their yoki to make sure there's no yoma around.

Half an hour later they came to a split path and like before Naruto went to the right, with the silver eyed women following him.

Another half an hour of walking it was then the others, excluding Naruto, Helen, Deneve and Flora felt it. The faint but noticeable feeling of dread. Miria quickly stopped and reached for the handle of her claymore, with the others affected doing the same thing.

Just what was this?! It was unlike anything they had felt before!

Stopping Naruto looked at Miria with a raised brow. "So you feel it huh?"

Miria looked at him with wide eyes. "What is this Naruto?!" she hissed demandingly.

Turning around to face her completely Naruto spread his arms and looked around momentarily. "That would be, y'know, the feeling of dread I was feeling when ever I came down here." Bringing his arms down and crossing them against his torso, he added with a hint of annoyance in his voice, "You know what I was trying to tell you for a while but brushed off."

"Maybe if you prey it away, it'll go away." Helen said unhelpfully with her hands in a mock prayer.

"She doesn't believe it. Maybe her unbelief will make it go away." Naruto added with Deneve shaking her head and sighing at the antics of her best friend and friend.

"Knock it off." Miria growled at them; she was glaring at her surroundings and looked a few seconds away from drawing her claymore. "Where do we go from here?"

Seeing as she was likely to lash out if he didn't take it seriously Naruto beckoned her to follow him and walked off the path. To Miria's disbelief when she followed him the feeling of dread increased instead of fading. Her eyes darting from left to right she grew downright suspicious when she saw Helen, Deneve and Flora were not affected at all by this.

Then again they were here before. Maybe they got use to it while they were around?

A few minutes later and the feeling of dread and unease increasing they found it. The door in the ground. Opening it with a grunt Naruto peered down the staircase, looked at Helen, Deneve and Flora for a moment before heading down. Helen didn't hesitate following him. Neither did Flora nor Deneve for that matter.

Taking a deep breath to calm her nerves Miria closed her eyes, opened them again, and followed after the four. One by one the other 5 followed in after them. After many turns they reached the end and came into a wide and open room. There was a single sarcophagus in the middle of it along with 'Tank' Dempsey's statue towering the sarcophagus.

"I'm back! As I said I would!" Naruto suddenly called out.

Confused Miria, along with the other five who were not here before, were wondering who he was talking too. Miria herself was about to ask him just what he was doing, up until someone she never heard before actually replied.

"So you did, kid." 'Tank' Dempsey replied before fading into opacity in front of his sarcophagus. He was surprised. Very, very surprised to see there was more people this time around in his own tomb. "And you brought some more friends too. All with the same coloured hair and eyes..."

"What're you getting at?"

"I'm wondering if they're related to each other is all."

"...Actually..." Naruto slowly looked to Miria, "I never did ask that. How come you all have the same coloured hair and eyes?"

Seeing the chance to mess with him and everyone else at the same time Helen immediately took it and exploited it to the best of her ability.

"We're sisters." she had a massive grin on her face as she put an arm around her best friend and pulled Deneve to her. "All of us are totally sisters." Miria, Clare, Flora, Jean, Deneve and Cynthia, Yuma and Tabitha all looked at Helen as if she had said something inane. Deneve palmed her face with a very exasperated look showing on it.

Naruto looked back and forth between Helen and the other women. Repeatedly. With a puzzled look on his face. Dempsey meanwhile merely rubbed his stubbled chin with a thoughtful frown.

"You don't look like sisters..." Dempsey trailed off with a suspicious frown.

"That's because some of us are cousins! Reaaaally distant cousins!" Helen added and that got Dempsey and Naruto to look at her as if she were stupid.

"So...you're sisters but you're also cousins...?" Naruto said questionably and with Helen's enthusiastic nod, he slowly nodded before asking. "How the hell does that work?"

"Yeah I'm with the kid on this one. The only way you can be sisters is if you all had the same mother or father." said Dempsey, and there's like nine of them here. There's no way they can have the same mother or father. "I can see you being distant cousins though."

"But they don't act like family."

Dempsey gave Naruto a look and crossed his arms to his chest. "Do you act like family with yours?"

That question gave Naruto a bitter look and with a heavy frown the seventeen year old glared at the ground as he muttered, "Considering they sold me and I got sent here, obviously it wasn't enough."

Naruto shook his head in the negative and looked back at 'Tank'. "Well there you go. Just because they don't act like family doesn't mean they're not."

"But-but they're not family."

"How would you know?"

"Because they're not."

"But how would you know?"

"Because- because they're not."

"But they could be."

"'Tank'...they're not family. Seriously now."

"But they could be."

"'Tank' no..."

"'Tank' yes!"

All the while Helen was sniggering in complete amusement at the conversation/argument/bantering she had wrought between Naruto and Dempsey. Deneve on the other hand was looking at her best friend from the corner of her eye with a look of mild embarrassment, though she did think the little banter Naruto and the spectre are having is a little funny. She would NEVER let anyone know that hoervrt.

Helen would find out though. She always does. Somehow.

The other women were watching the two males arguing with each other in bemusement. Cynthia was sniggering and Flora was Flora was smiling as her shoulders jumped in silent laughter. However all good things must come to an end as Miria decided to correct the misconception Helen had wrought.

"As amusing your argument of us being sisters, step-sisters and cousins, Naruto is in fact correct. We are not related in any way."

Naruto and Dempsey stopped their conversation/argument and looked at Miria, the former having a thankful look on his face being sent her way, while giving Helen a look of childish annoyance. The latter having a look of underwhelming surprise that became a look of indifference.

"Alright." Dempsey immediately brushed Miria off to her surprise and brought his attention to Naruto. He noticed the kid was looking a little off. He may have hidden it well but something was eating at him. "Something the matter kiddo? You look a little distracted."

"No. No nothings-" Naruto paused mid-speech and looked at the ground thoughtfully. "Actually...there is something you could help me with." he looked at the ghost with an hopeful expression on his face.

"I don't know if I can help, but I sure as hell can try. What's eaten at you?"

"It was a past memory of when I was twelve years old." he explained to give a bit of context. "Four years ago I met this man. This was shortly after...the incident that made me lose half a decade of my memories." All the while Dempsey was nodding attentively, patently listening to the young man, until he said the final part that shocked him. "There I met a man who called himself Doctor Monty- that look on your face. You know who he is."

Dempsey shook his head in the negative, surprising Naruto because he was sure the spectre knows the old man. "Not exactly." began the spectre. "I know OF him. You see Monty isn't the type of guy to show himself. I heard him speak before, but, I never saw him."

"Do you know who he is?"

Sighing Dempsey turned to look at his statue. He exhaled and said to the astonishment of the women and surprise of Naruto, "Monty is a Keeper. The leader of them to be exact." he grunted thoughtfully and curiously looked at Naruto from over his shoulder. "If you saw him, it must have been for a very good reason. Do you remember the reason why?"

Rubbing the back of his neck Naruto thinned his lips as he looked at the ground in thought. "Four years ago...I came across this stone. A boulder sized one. It was big and weird looking. Glowing. I touched it and...something happened."

"You lost your memory. Right, I remember you saying that yesterday." Dempsey said as he nodded to himself. "Was the colour of the rock orange?"

Naruto looked up with wide eyes. "Y-yeah! How'd you-"

"Know? I saw them before in my time." he said before looking at everyone seriously. And when they saw him straighten himself they reflexively straightened themselves as well. "Listen to me, if any of you find a glowing orange rock, destroy it. No matter what you have to destroy it. It's far too dangerous to keep around."

"What makes this rock so dangerous?" Miria questioned with a skeptical look.

"Oh boy. Where to begin. How about it can reanimate dead corpses?"

That had captured Helen and Deneve's attention, since the two of them plus Naruto had encountered a yoma that should have been by all rights dead. Alarmed the two friends exchanged looks before they quickly approached the spectre.

"It can bring the dead back to life? You're sure?" questioned Deneve; at Dempsey's confirmed nod the pixie-haired woman let out a curse and said, "Fuck! That makes a bit more sense now that I think about it!"

Helen looked at her best friend. "You think a glowing orange rock was around when we encountered that yoma?"

Deneve looked at Helen. "There had to be."

"Are you two talking about that one yoma who was a walking corpse?" Miria asked the two; since she and the others had been told of the circumstances of them meeting Naruto for the first time, during the three weeks they were hiding in the mountains.

Helen and Deneve looked back at their leader and nodded, with Helen saying. "Yeah. As you and Clare know we first met Naruto when he was being attacked by a dead yoma."

Miria nodded thinking back to the time they informed her and Jean of their companion they had picked up during their last assignment, and of the enemy they faced. The walking dead, an enemy humanity had not seen since the fall of the Old World.

Deneve then added, "It had a strange power as well. The ability to teleport."

"Teleportation eh..." Everyone looked at the ghost; Dempsey rubbed his chin with a thoughtful frown. Grunting he crossed his arms and said, "I don't know what a yoma is, I'm guessing it's an evolution thing...but the teleportation ability takes me back. I fought a few zombies that had the annoying power to teleport."

Everyone was looking at the ghost with wide eyes.

"Really?"

Dempsey nodded in confirmation; "Yeah. The first ones I encountered that could teleport were Hellhounds. Imagine large dogs partially enveloped by fire, red glowing eyes, and a large amount of skin torn off down to the bone and you have yourself a Hellhound."

"That's a disturbing thought." Yuma made a disgusted face at the mental image her imagination conjured up thanks to the description. What made it worse is the fact Helen, Deneve and Naruto already fought a teleporting zombie.

With everyone else invested in the conversation with the ancient ghost Naruto eased away from them and went to slipped away and went to the other side of the room. He took off his small back pack and took out the blood vial. It wasn't glowing anymore. Now it looks like an ordinary vial of blood.

While he was confused as to why it wasn't glowing orange anymore Naruto wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. He attached it to the front part of his suspenders on the webbing set and put the small pack back on.

Then suddenly a sphere of lightning appeared in the room surprising everyone.

However the appearance of the sphere triggered a fragmented memory, a fragmented memory of a time that has long past.

Naruto's eyes grew wide as the scene changed before his very eyes. No longer was he inside of a tomb. He was outside and could see a city city made out of glass and metal. Parting the clouds above were meteors falling from the sky. They collided with the buildings creating massive and devastating explosions. Entire structures collapsed in a ball of fire and hot ash.

The dead rose out from the rubble minutes later and started attacking helpless civilians who were too stunned to react. Spheres of electricity appeared among the quickly gathering horde of zombies with four legged dogs – looking as if they came from hell itself running out of them and chasing down anyone in their path.

Distressed by what he saw, unknowing it was a delayed side effect of Element 115 he came in contact with four years ago, Naruto out of reflex held out his hand, Ancients Wrath manifesting in his palm and slashed at whatever was coming from the sphere with an enraged roar.

He stopped at the last second however, when it was the Keeper that came from the sphere. The cause for the illusion being triggered was held in its hand. A small fragment of Element 115.

The women all gasped in shock as Naruto held the Keeper hostage with his sword. And they all saw how distressed he looked. Miria however picked up the different mannerisms Naruto was displaying and knew this wasn't the same person they've come to know.

Dempsey's mouth slowly dropped open in both astonishment and disbelief. Shocked that Naruto was holding a fucking Keeper of all things at sword point!

"Oh shit..." he knew just how dangerous a Keeper was. Threatening one the way the kid is, it is a quick way to die.

However the Keeper didn't go hostile when it found itself in in its current predicament. Instead it did the exact opposite to the surprise of the ghost.

The Keeper slowly raised its clawed hands in a non-threatening manner. **"Naruto...calm down. I am not an enemy..."** hearing the Keeper talk to him Naruto briefly closed his eyes, and bared his teeth as he flinched. Eyes opened once again Naruto growled as he aggressively inhaled and exhaled; his sword arm shaking as he struggled to figure out what to do next.

However this did the exact opposite of what the Keeper wanted. Instead of calming Naruto the Keeper increased his aggressiveness.

Naruto aggressively bared his teeth as he glared at the Keeper, shocking everyone in the room at the personality switch. "How the fuck do you know my name?!" he demanded. Before the Keeper could answer Naruto groaned stressfully and closed his eyes and held the side of his scalp as his head hung down. This gave the Keeper time to float away from Naruto. "There's so much I have to do. Locate the beacon and activate it so Richtofen can find me." Naruto dropped the sword to the ground as he held his head with both hands and started shaking his head frantically. "Argh! No! I'm not there! I'm in the tomb! God dammit, I'm getting confused! Damn these 115-induced illusions!"

Slowly, cautiously, Dempsey made his way over to the stressed and confused teenager. Helen wanted to go over there as well to comfort him, but Deneve kept her from going over there. The others were watching on, confused and worried for the young man, while a few were suspicious of the Keeper. Naruto had been fine up until it reappeared the way it did. And only Miria was the one to notice the otherworldly being was holding something in its palm.

"Naruto? Are you okay?"

Taking slow deep breaths Naruto opened his eyes and slowly looked up. "I-I don't know." now shaking Naruto slowly lowered his arms to his sides and looked unsure at his surroundings. To everyone in the room it was as if he couldn't see them. "I'm...seeing and remembering things. Things that I KNOW I haven't seen before."

"What are you seeing right now?" questioned Dempsey.

He didn't answer. Instead his mannerism changed again. He was more calm. Confident. Almost cocky. Straightening himself Naruto surveyed his surroundings and frowned in confusion when he saw the silver eyed women staring at him.

He showed recognition upon seeing 'Tank' Dempsey.

Blinking Dempsey slowly eased forward; that look on his face showed he knew him. Could that mean...

"Kid? Is that you?"

Naruto thinned his lips and crossed his arms. "We get separated by those Apothicon bastards and the next thing I see is you wearing crusader armour." he said before giving the ghost a confident smirk.

Hearing those words Dempsey got wide eyed. It can't be.


	8. Chapter 8

Primis

Chapter 7

Naruto looked Dempsey over. "How the hell did you end up as a ghost? And where is Takeo, Nikolai and Richtofen? Weren't they with you?"

"You're not the same Naruto we've come to know." Helen said, prompting Naruto, Dempsey and the Keeper to look at her. Naruto gave her a confused look. "What did you do to him?" she demanded, with a fierce look.

"I didn't do anything. Just because I act differently doesn't mean I'm not the same person."

"Bullshit!" Helen spat with a glare. "The Naruto I know was never this crass or aggressive."

"But the Naruto I know is." Dempsey said and Naruto nodded with a smirk. Then the ghost remembered what Naruto had said minutes before. "115-induced illusions. You're not really the kid I knew back then are you? You're just the memory and personality of him."

Still smirking Naruto nodded in confirmation again. "Got it in one, American." he looked at Helen and gave her a kind smile. "I'm still here. A little freaked out but still here. I take it you have many questions 'Tank'?" he asked as he looked back to the ghost in question.

The man slowly nodded and everyone else listened with rapt attention. "What happened? Takeo, Nikolai, myself and Richtofen tried to find you after the final battle, but it was like you just vanished from the face of the Earth. There was no body or anything."

Taking a deep breath Naruto said to Tank in a questioning tone, "Would you believe me if I said the Naruto you knew was thrown through time?"

"What!?" exclaimed Dempsey, along with several others who were just as in disbelief as Dempsey was. The only one who didn't seem surprised was the Keeper who was stroking its chin with its clawed hand.

"Yeah." Naruto gazed up at the ceiling. "From what his memories are showing me he was fighting zombies."

"There was too many of them. I remember." the ghost said solemnly. "And then there was a bright light. I didn't think too much of it at the time since we were still fighting off the undead." he added on as an afterthought.

"Right. There was a bright light. The next thing I see, he was in a completely different place. By himself. Or so I- no, he thought." to the confusion of Helen, Deneve, Cynthia, Yuma, Tabitha, Clare and Miria, and Jean and Flora, Naruto stared pointedly at them.

It was Miria who first deduced what happened next. Jean and Clare came second and third with the others following shortly after.

"He met one of us?" the hybrids exchanged uncertain looks with each other. That can't be right. As far as any of them knew they never ran into Naruto a month prior.

Thankfully Naruto was able to clear it up. "Not exactly. The person had the same coloured eyes and hair as you. But it was actually a he instead of a she."

That revelation had not surprised any of them. After Pieta, where they had to fight several male awakened all of them had suspected a forgotten generation. One where the results were less than satisfactory and was so bad it had to be wiped from the Organizations history books to say the least.

"Excuse me." Cynthia politely called out while waving her hand in the air; with Naruto's attention on her she asked, "How long ago was this?"

Naruto rubbed his chin in deep thought. It was such a long time ago; but if he had to make an assumption then it would have to be...

"Four hundred years ago. I think?" he answered; he looked a little unsure of his answer however and everyone was able to pick up on it.

"You think?" Tabitha questioned with an arched brow.

"Give me a break Tabitha. I'm currently sharing the memory and personality of another Naruto. You have no idea how annoying it is trying to sort through another fucking memory and personality that are fucking bleeding into mine! And it's realLLY HARD TELLING WHAT IS REAL AND WHAT ISN'T! Argh, I'm okay! I'm okay." Naruto said, starting off calm at the beginning that escalated to being both annoyed and angry at the middle, before calming right back down again at the end.

"Is trying to keep yourself level headed with another personality that hard?" Dempsey questioned.

"You have no fucking idea." Naruto growled, he looked at his hand and clenched and unclenched it repeatedly. "It's like trying to mix two recipes that don't work well together. And I've been here for a long time. No! Grrr! He's been here! Not me! Him!" growling in frustration Naruto grabbed the sides of his head and held them there, adding pressure as if it would force the confusion he was having away.

"Naruto..." rightfully worried Helen reached out to him; and like before she would have gone over there if it weren't for Deneve holding her back.

The young man held up his hand. "I'm fine! I'm fine." he breathed. "I just...need to concentrate. Breathe, Naruto! Focus on the present. Separate his memories from yours." seeing how stressed, confused and frustrated he was getting no one, even Miria who wanted to know more, had argued with him.

"Alright, I think I can go on now." Naruto said after he calmed down.

"Maybe we shouldn't." Flora said with a few others nodding along with her.

"I think 'Tank' would want some closure on what happened to me, right?" he said, directing the question to the spectre in question.

"Yeah. Actually. I do want to know." the man admitted; he rubbed the back of his neck adding, "I sure as hell know Takeo, Nikolai and Richtofen wants to know. If what I remember still rings true Richtofen kept on looking for you. Said not even death itself would stop him." he chuckled. "I think he's still out there somewhere. Aimlessly wandering the land as a ghost looking for you."

"I wouldn't put it past him." chuckled Naruto. Inhaling and exhaling he closed his eyes to focus again, "Alright. Let's see what happened to him...Okay. Looks like I – he went to a city that was getting its walls built to keep out monsters. Ra-bo-na, I think it was called? Yeah it was definitely Rabona."

"Rabona?" Clare spoke up, surprised, she had been there to kill a particularly strong yoma that had lived for a surprising amount of time. "I know that place. Do you know why this...other version of you went there?"

"I'm working on it. Sorting through these 115-induced illusions is straining." Naruto replied without opening his eyes. "Okay, got it! He was there because... Oh..." the way he sounded like was as if he found something really disturbing and was really reluctant to share it.

"Oh? That's a bad 'Oh'. What happened? Dempsey asked.

Naruto opened his eyes and gave the ghost a slightly wide eyed look, "'Tank', Naruto went over there because he heard a rumour that a research facility was underneath the city."

"A...research facility?" Miria knew the Organization had many bases throughout the land that acted as research facilities. She could never find the documents that had information on their location though. The handlers and leaders of the Organization were the only ones who were allowed to see them.

"Yeah, a research facility." he affirmed while looking at her before bringing his gaze back to Dempsey. He dampened his bottom lip in nervousness; he knew the man wasn't going to take what he is going to say next very well. "He found it underneath a Cathedral and went in. He went in and never came out."

"No..." Dempsey breathed out, he took a few steps back with a look of complete devastation on his face. "No no no no. No it can't be. The kid's tough. Resourceful. He wouldn't go and die like that." the ghost said completely denying the reality that was in front of him.

Seeing how distraught the ghost was Naruto wanted to reassure him. To make him feel better. The thing is though he has no idea on where to even begin. Naruto winced as he held the side of his head again, closing his eyes as he tried to focus on anything else but the illusion.

Then he snapped open his eyes and looked at the Keeper who was still holding the shard of Element 115 in its hand.

"Keeper." with the other worldly beings attention solely on him Naruto asked. "Is it possible for you to get me directly into Rabona?"

" **It is possible, yes."** confirmed the Keeper. **"But given their superstition towards those who are not 'normal' they will try to kill me on sight. And you too by association."**

"The way you're dressed makes you stand out Naruto. You won't go unnoticed by the soldiers there." Clare added, Sid and Galk had suspected her of being a hybrid within a few days of infiltrating the holy city.

" **The human said the research facility is underneath the Cathedral. He will not be discovered if he is down there."** the Keeper pointed out.

"That is if you can get me there. Or as close as you possibly can." Naruto said.

Sighing Dempsey crossed his arms with an unhappy scowl. "You're going to go there aren't you? That's why you're asking the Keeper if it's able to get you there." when Naruto nodded confirmedly Dempsey sighed again and shook his head. "As much as I want to go I won't be of much help to you. If anything I would be a liability." closing his eyes as he let out yet another sigh Dempsey uncrossed his arms and asked Naruto as he looked at him, "So who is going with you?"

"I was planning on doing this alone." Naruto admitted.

"Yeah. No. You're not doing that." Helen shrugged Deneve's hand off her shoulder and walked over to Naruto where she then put her arm over his shoulder. "The only way you're going there is if someone's with you."

The Keeper was insulted even if it is unable to expression it through expressions. **"What is that metaphor you humans used to have? Ah. I believe it was 'What am I chopped liver'? He will not be alone. I will be with him."** The Keeper said as Helen and Naruto looked at it. Naruto sent a nod of gratitude its way and the Keeper inclined its head in return.

Helen however didn't look convinced. "I don't care how powerful your kind is said to be – you're just one person, being, whatever you are. You won't be able to protect Naruto by yourself." she shot back, getting up in its face and pressing a single digit roughly on to its torso.

The Keeper growled in irritation at the sheer audacity of the rude woman. But instead of lashing out, as much as it wanted too, the alien floated away from her and placed the dangerous rock inside of its satchel.

"Helen! Enough!" Miria barked when she saw the woman about to go after it. She knew the stories. She knew enough about Primis and their allies the Keepers; and with what little was said about the Keepers from ancient texts and through word of mouth they are powerful. She just didn't know how powerful. When she was cowed Miria continued, "I understand you're worried about him and I do get your point. If the Keeper is going to be with Naruto when he is...investigating this facility...then he will be fine. However! It wouldn't hurt if he had someone else with him."

"Which is why I'm going as well. And nothing you say will change my mind, so don't bother!" Helen said when Naruto opened his mouth to argue.

"Heh. You're so whipped kid." Dempsey sniggered, and Naruto gave him the finger in response.

"Well if Helen's going with you, then I'm going too." Deneve said as she walked over to both him and Helen.

"I'm going as well. I've been to Rabona once and I have been inside of the Cathedral itself." Clare said.

"Alright." conceded Naruto sighingly; he knew he wasn't going to convince either of them to back out now that they have committed themselves into going with him. And besides, three is better than one. Naruto looked at the Keeper to address it, "Do you know where Rabona is?"

" **Yes."** despite not being around for more than a month the Keeper, along with several others did keep tabs on this dimension. It's just not as often as they should so a lot of things are left unknown to then.

Just like how the Keeper did not bring up the other Naruto's that busted him out of the Organizations clutches two months ago; because it wasn't keeping tabs on the dimension at that specific time.

"Please take us there." Naruto politely requested it.

" **Very well. Stand together everyone. I'd rather not have to come back and collect you because you were too far away from each other."** the Keeper said and one Helen, Deneve, Clare and Naruto were all close together the Keeper held out its hands. And then without any warning the four were gone.

After several long seconds that seemed to go on forever Dempsey looked at Miria and the others and crossed his arms as he regarded them.

"So...I guess you have some questions for me?" he said and that was when Miria who remembered why she came here in the first place got a glint in her eye as she looked back at the spectre.

A glint for knowledge.

X.X.X.X

 **Rabona minutes later.**

When they reappeared Naruto, Helen and Deneve and Clare all took in their new surroundings. At the same time the Keeper floated off to the side to get a lay of the land. Clare reminisced about the first time she was here and subconsciously held her abdomen.

Helen was looking at the stained windows with admiration. The size of them boggled her mind. Not to mention the detail put into the craftsmanship had really gotten her attention. Deneve on the other hand was more focused on the mission and was currently trying to find a way to get inside of the facility since it is underneath the Cathedral.

Standing idle momentarily Naruto closed his eyes and tapped his foot against the floor in thought. He had to think; he knows there is a way to get underground. The entrance to the base, facility, what ever it would be called is nearby hidden in plain sight.

It was at this moment that Naruto felt something; a pull or was it another illusion conducted by 115? Opening his eyes the young man looked around in suspicion and followed it the pulling sensation. He was led to a wall and he saw something was off about it. There was an brick was out of place.

The other bricks that made the entire structure was bigger in size and much, much wider. This one on the other hand was smaller. About the size you would commonly find on a brick wall. How no one noticed that little detail for so long baffled him. Looking left and then right Naruto clenched his hand and pressed it up against the brick, and pushed with all his might.

The brick resisted for a few moments before giving way. It wasn't long until Naruto heard the faint sound of a 'click' followed by the heavy noise of a floor giving way and sink.

"Whoa! What the heck!" Helen yelped out in surprise and she was even more surprised to find the floor in between the isle and alter sink down into an circular stairway.

"This is new." Deneve said with wide eyes as she, Helen and Clare all cautiously walked over to the edge and peered down the staircase.

"And loud. It would be a matter of time before someone comes to investigate." Clare pointed out to the two of them.

"All the more for us to get down there." the three women all looked at Naruto as he walked over to them, and as he unslung his Commando assault rifle, the young man didn't hesitate in walking down the staircase with his weapon held up and ready to fire.

The Keeper teleported itself in front of the staircase and floated down after him. Its hands making circular motions around the orb of electricity floating between them. Helen, Deneve and Clare exchanged looks before following in after them with their hands on the hilts of their claymores.

It took them almost five minutes to get to the bottom of the stairwell and when Clare was the last to touch solid floor the five of them all turned back when the stairway began to rise up to the ceiling. Effectively trapping them underneath the foundation of the building.

Thankfully they were able to see thanks to the glowing orb of electricity the Keeper had floating in the middle of its hands.

Who knew it could be used as a light source?

"This place is creepy." Helen said with disdain in her voice.

"I agree. This place gives off a creepy atmosphere." Deneve stated as her silver eyes cautiously took in their new surroundings.

"Torch holders?" Clare uttered aloud as she looked at said torch holders with a thoughtful frown.

"I wouldn't touch anything if I were you." Naruto warned the bob-cut woman, "Who knows what is booby trapped here."

"You honestly think the builders would booby trap torch holders?" Helen questioned with amusement lathed in her voice.

"You would be surprised at what lengths people would go to keep things in. Or to keep grave robbers out."

"You sound as if you're talking from personal experience." Clare said.

"I'm still under the influence of 115-included illusions Clare. Don't be surprised if I am sounding as if I am talking from personal experience." he sighed and slid by Helen and Deneve to get himself started on moving down the narrow corridor. Only to stop when three rows of spikes shot of the floor in front of him one after the other.

Startled Naruto let out a yell and Helen was quick to yank him out of danger, he looked back at her and said in gratitude, "Thank you, Helen."

"You're welcome." she looked ahead of her and narrowed her eyes dangerously. "Guess you weren't kidding about the traps." Helen looked down at the ground with squinting eyes and saw three rows of holes in the floor. She didn't see anything that could have triggered the trap though; "We're going to have to watch our step from now on."

As she said that the spikes shot up from the ground again, and like before it was one row after the other Deneve and Clare walked over until they were standing side by side with Naruto and Helen. They watched and timed how long it takes for the spikes to come up again after going down.

"Ten seconds." Deneve said.

"Yeah. And there is a three second gap from the other spikes coming up and down too." Helen added analytically.

Clare squinted her eyes as she looked at the floor. The light emitting from the Keeper's orb isn't enough to illuminate the area. "I'm not too sure about this, but there may be a gap between the rows that are big enough for a person to stand." she pointed out to them and sure enough once they focused their attention to the ground Helen, Deneve and Naruto all could see the gap Clare was talking about.

Naruto sighed rolled his shoulders in preparation for what was to come next, "We're not going to find out what happened to the other me by standing here. I'll go first."

"What!? No! Why should you go first?" Helen demanded going as far as to grab Naruto by the shoulder to prevent him from going through the trap.

"I have the range in the form of my assault rifle and bow. I also have close quarters with the use of my sword." Naruto explained to her with a sigh. He turned to look halfway over his shoulder at Helen as he added, "I am the best person for this. This corridor is too tight and narrow for your techniques to be effective. And I don't want to have the entire cathedral to collapse on top of our heads because you accidentally, cut down the support keeping the ceiling from falling down on us."

Helen narrowed her eyes and leaned down until she was face to face with him effectively pressing her bosom against his back. Naruto blinked at Helen a few times in confusion, glanced towards the spike trap with uncertainty before he awkwardly leaned away from her.

"Are you saying we're a liability?" Helen asked him with a flat, unamused stare and the tone to match it. Deneve and Clare stared, bemused at how Helen was acting towards the young man. But they kept silent as they were wondering what he is going to say to get out of it.

"What? No!" Naruto exclaimed with bewilderment. "It's just...you're strong. You're all strong. And with how narrow this corridor is, all it takes is one stray attack with your claymore's and everything will potentially go to hell on us." he even saw Jean's drill sword cut through thick stone several times and even more women cutting down entire trees with but a single slash. With them having enough force like that, putting them in a concealed space like this is a disaster waiting to happen. And he wants to avoid that.

Helen could see the truth in that and as if a switch and been flicked, the short haired woman grinned and surprised the heck out of him by giving him a light peck on the lips. Then she did something that no one had expected and shoved him forward when the first row of spikes went back down in the ground.

"Craaaahhhhhaaaaap!" Not really having enough time to react Naruto followed his instinct and ran through the trap. It was perfectly timed too. Each row of spikes retracted into the ground with every row he passed. And when he made it past the third and final one he was surprised again when the torch holders were suddenly lit on fire with no warning.

Hissing as his eyes were assaulted by the flames brightness Naruto shielded them until they were able to adjust to the light. As creeped out as he was by the fire suddenly appear, something good came out of it: he can see now.

Clare made her way through the spike trap. Followed by Deneve and lastly Helen, with the latter sheepishly rubbing the back of her head at the unamused look her best friend and Naruto were sending her. Clare looked like she didn't care, though the irritated twitch of her left brow showed how she really felt at Helen's action.

The Keeper merely teleported past the trap and floated behind Naruto protectively. It was hissing at Helen, clearly unamused at the stunt she just pulled.

"...C'mon guys, it was a joke..." she weakly defended herself.

The Keeper growled as it stopped weaving its hands around the orb of electricity, **"A joke that could have gotten him killed! And if he did die because your stunt – I would have wiped your very existence off of the face of the Earth. I have the power to _do_ so."** to emphasise how serious it was, the Keeper flicked one of its hands and the trap, along with a part of the floor behind them ceased their existence. There was no flare, no theatrics or light shows, they just ceased to exist as if they were never there in the first place.

Gulping audibly a wide eyed and pale Helen nodded to show she understood. "Right! Don't do that again! Got it!"

After securing his assault rifle by allowing the sling hang from his shoulder, Naruto sighed as he put a single arm over her shoulders, he pulled Helen to him in a one armed hug and made sure to make it as uncomfortable as possible.

"N-Naruto that's a little rough." Helen told him with a weak smile.

"Oh I know. That's the point." Naruto then bared his teeth in irritation and put her in a headlock. "That's. The. Entire. POINT!" he yelled as he gave her scalp a rough noogie. He didn't do it for long; it was only a few seconds but when he pulled away it left Helen's hair ruffled and messy.

She didn't do anything in retaliation though since she actually deserved worse after shoving him through the trap. With that out of the way the five proceeded to go deeper into the corridor and kept a close eye on where they step while keeping an eye for more hidden traps. It helped that the torch holders would be lit up with flames every time they are passing them so it kept the corridor well lit. Because of this they were able to see more holes in the floor and on the walls; by surveying their surrounding closely they were also able to find a few pressure plates on the ground as well and were able to avoid stepping on them.

After what felt like an eternity the five reached the end of the corridor with the next area blocked by a seemingly ordinary round door made entirely of rock. Engraved on it was the symbol of a hand grabbing onto an atom. The numbers 935 could be seen.

"Wait...this feels...familiar?" Naruto breathed as he stepped up to it. This symbol, the numbers, it's nagging him for a reason he can't remember. It honestly irritated him.

As Naruto looked it over Deneve asked him, "You've seen this before?" the young man stopped and looked at the pixie-haired woman halfway over his shoulder, before shrugging with a look of uncertainty.

"I think so? And this isn't because of the illusions." he turned back to the door and stared it down with narrowed eyes, "This symbol. It's significant somehow. But the reason...it eludes me."

"Let's ask the Keeper." Clare said, before she and the other three turned to the being itself. Naruto had a curious, and interested look on his face as Clare asked, "Do you know what that is? What it means?"

" **No. I don't. It is a mystery for me too."** the Keeper said in an even tone and Naruto gave it a suspicious look. Naruto didn't know why but he had a distinct feeling that the Keeper was lying to them. But he wasn't going to call it out on that. It was after all just a hunch.

As he looked at the door again Naruto felt a presence enter his mind. Not a moment later he almost jumped out of surprise when he heard a voice coming from an elderly man he had not heard from in years.

"That would be the symbol for Group 935. An organization that is similar to the one those women you're with use to belong to." Doctor Monty said. "Ah ah ah! No talking. It's only you that can hear me Naruto. And I have to say, the years after we first met face to face have certainly been kind to you. Now. I suppose you have questions preterning to that symbol on the door hmm?"

Naruto didn't have to talk in order to convey what he wanted to say. The otherworldly being that is Doctor Monty knew the question the young man wanted to ask.

"Well. I suppose I should start from the beginning and work my way up: Group 935 was an organization that researched improvements for the human condition. Of course, they strayed from their original intent when war broke out. Twice. The first time was in the year 1914, that would be four thousand years ago from your point of view – and they found a cashe of Element One Fifteen. A substance found in meteor's that are so deadly it could reanimate dead blood cells, effectively bringing the dead to life. Sound familiar?" the way the disembodied voice said that was filled with sarcasm. "Anyway, from their mucking about with Element 115 got people sick – and because of that they died and came back as the living dead. Of course after they were practically getting their ass handed to them on all sides thanks to their fucking about, they were able to prevent a world wide apocalypse with the help of a group you would come to know as Primis."

That surprised the heck out of him; it was the first time he heard of Primis stopping the end of the world before they became the legendary team they're remembered for.

"Fast forward a few decades after the war and boom Group 935 were once again researching ways to help humanity. And with a little nudge by yours truly, I helped them create the perk machines like Quick Revive to help them in the event another zombie outbreak occurs. They surprisingly made a drink that could revitalise someone. Making them a few decades younger – permanently. Of course Primis drunk that particular drink and they went from being in their early forties to early to mid twenties. They quickly destroyed that perk machine though. Good thing too. The world would have been over populated if the populace knew there was a 'fountain of youth' drink out there." Monty let out an amused chuckle a that and after taking a moment to gather himself he continued.

"I poked them in the right direction to create powerful weapons. Oh-ho, the weapons they made back then would have blown your mind. I guided them to make a machine that could essentially 'upgrade' the effectiveness of weapons. Taking away all the faults and improving everything else." then Monty sighed in what sounded like a combination of irritation and astonishment. "Then war happened again. So instead of researching to improve humanity and create ways to protect themselves in the event another outbreak occurs, they were tasked by a man known as Adolph Hitler to design and build weapons that would help his army in the war effort. Doctor Maxis the leader of the organization reluctantly accepted, since they were low on funds at the time and Hitler was willing to pay them to continue their research. Well, as long as they put their weapons research and anything else that would improve his army first before all else. Following me so far?"

Naruto subtly nodded and Monty continued, "Well to make a long story short: Some idiot had the bright idea to make a fucking zombie army! Maxis was against the whole thing, let me tell you! But with Hitler losing the war and the threat of their funding being pulled, the man was pressured into making a zombie army for the bastard using Element One-Fifteen. Suffice to say it blew up in their faces! Even worse! Their experimentations with One-Fifteen blew a hole in the fucking space time continuum that allowed the Apothicons to invade! And that battle almost cost your world."

Long story short: prepare yourself for whatever is beyond that door, Naruto thought to himself as he warily stared at the door.

"Yeah. Exactly that. Well that's my interference done. I'll probably contact you again if shits about to go down." Monty exhaled out, sounding as if he was stretching; then he snapped his fingers in remembrance. "Oh! If you want to get inside just press the middle of the door. The architects weren't that imaginative fortunately. Ta ta for now!"

And with that said and done Doctor Monty was gone; it at that time Naruto noticed people were calling him his name and was getting pretty annoyed and frustrated at his lack of response.

"-aruto! Naruto!" jumping he looked over his shoulder to look at three very irritated looking women.

"Sorry, I was in thought." he said just before looking back at the round door.

"Must've been pretty damn important if you ignored us." Helen snarked; she was more than a little unhappy at him ignoring the three of them. Although now that she thought about it, as she glanced subtly at the Keeper, the short haired woman noticed the otherworldly being was being suspiciously quiet.

Naruto ignored her once again and followed Doctor Monty's instructions by pressing his hand flat against the stone door. Grunting he pushed all of his weight into the limb and quietly watched as a small part of the door sank in to the structure. Then a loud mechanical sounding 'click' sounded out. Naruto pulled back his hand and watched as the entire door sank in, dust falling to the ground, before rolling to the side and revealing what was beyond.

"My god."

"What is that thing?"

Those were the words that came from the mouths of Helen and Deneve. Both of whom are very surprised and gob-smacked by what they've seen. Clare was in the same boat but her reaction was a lot more subdued than her comrades. The widening of her eyes and the slight drop of the mouth was the only thing that showed how surprised the page boy-haired woman was.

"This is a machine that is beyond our comprehension." Naruto answered in stunned awe. "It's more advanced than anything my homeland has."

The machine in question is almost embedded on solid ground and around it was a round wall like tube. It was wide, metallic, and circular big enough to fit more than five people on to it. Coming out of it was big, exposed wires that was plugged in to the machine and to a panel with a few buttons off to the side nearby.

"Does it work?" Helen questioned as she, Deneve and Clare and the Keeper watched Naruto walk on to it. The woman approached the contraption and stood in front of the control panel. She gave it a curious look over. It was dusty and grimy looking.

"It shouldn't." was his reply as he got down on one knee to brush the centuries of collected dust and soot off of the surface. "It's been dormant for more than a thousand years with no one to take care of it. The chances of it working is very very very unlikely."

Sighing Helen crossed her arms and leaned against the panel. Unfortunately her hands were pressing against the big red and obvious button. And her weight pushed it down. This had turned on the machine making everyone jump in surprise at the sudden activation.

Before Naruto could react he was enveloped by a bright light with sparks of electricity shooting off it.

"Oh shit! Naruto!" screamed Helen.

He didn't respond and when the light evaporated seconds later the reason why was made clear: Naruto was no longer there.

"What the HELL did you do Helen!?" yelled Deneve as she and Clare ran to the machine; the two women were overwhelmed with both surprise and shock at what happened.

"You're asking me?! I have no idea what happened!" Helen no longer against against the control panel yelled back. She was wide eyed with distraught and was close to hyperventilating over what happened to Naruto. "I thought it wasn't working! Naruto said it shouldn't be working!"

If the device in question was any common piece of machinery, then the likelihood of it working would have indeed been slim. However this was not just a normal piece of machinery. It was a Matter Transference Device, or MTD for short. A teleporter that is powered by Element One-fifteen; an element of great power that is able to last for an eternity.

But that knowledge is not known to any of them except for the Keeper, who had seen many MTD's in the past. It knew how they operated and what they were meant to do. With that knowledge available to it, it was understandable that the Keeper was not going berserk at what had happened.

Neither of the three hybrids took notice of that however; with them being distracted by what happened just seconds ago.

"Miria is going to kill you." Clare gravely told the short haired woman. It was a figure of speech, but in all seriousness Miria is going to figuratively kill Helen after she finds out what happened here.

"Oh god oh god oh god!" with her head in her hands Helen began to pace back and forth in the room with gradually rising panic.

She had no idea what to do.


	9. Chapter 9

Primis

Chapter 8

Cycle No: Unknown.

Naruto felt weightless. He couldn't feel the ground; couldn't see his own body; all the young man could see was glimmering lights; they almost reminded him of stars; along with that Naruto thought he could...see something – multiple something's coming towards him. Images showing things he didn't understand or places he had never seen before. But they would vanish as quickly as they came.

Although he could have sworn one of the images he saw was his home. He didn't know what to make of it though.

When he finally re-materialised on a mainframe Naruto was disorientated and dizzy and had a slightly blurry eye sight. All the blood had rushed to his head and he was light headed along with having trembling legs. He also felt lighter for some reason unknown to him at the moment.

As he hunched over Naruto started dry heaving. The acid in his stomach threatening to come up and out of his mouth. Fortunately that didn't happen as his stomach managed to settle down before it could.

It was around this time that his eyesight began to clear up, and he was finally able to see where he had ended up.

"What the hell..?" he whispered to himself in shocked disbelief and astonishment.

It was his home. But at the same time it wasn't his home. It was in a state of ruin. Partially standing buildings, rubble covered the streets, small craters and shrapnel could be seen and he could see lots of red as well.

All in all it looked like a war zone.

But Naruto knew better. Going over to get a closer look the young man knelt beside a piece of rubble and ran his fore and middle fingers through the redness surrounding it. It flaked under his touch and Naruto was able to pick up a smell he had not noticed before: iron.

Exhaling Naruto rubbed his fingers against his thumb watching as the dried blood flaked its way to the ground. Sighing the blonde reached for his CAR-15 only to grab nothing. He quickly looked over his shoulder and to his dismay he found it gone! It was no longer on his possession!

"The fuck!?" so that was why he felt more lighter than normal? Because his weapon was gone?! At least he has the bayonet on him, that way he won't be completely weaponless. And speaking of weapons Naruto held his hand out and to his relief Wrath of the Ancients materialised in his palm. After that the ancient bow dematerialised and Ancients Wrath took its place.

Relieved that he knows he has two powerful weapons still in his possession Naruto dismissed the sword and briefly scanned the area. There was something off about all this and the young man was smart enough to observe what it was. There was no activity – as in no people and no animals. There wasn't any noises either.

Narrowing his brow Naruto slowly made his way further into the ruins of his city. All he could see no matter where he looked was rubble, destroyed buildings and dried blood. And the more he went into the city he started to see a blood of blood trails. Like bodies had been dragged through the streets.

That certainly explained why there were no corpses around. But that didn't explain where they had been taken too but he had a few suspicions. A mass grave being one of them. There was one way to find out though – follow the trail.

It didn't take long for him to hear something. He paused and strained his hearing to figure out what it was.

His eyes slowly went wide in realisation upon figuring out just what he was hearing. It was the groaning of the dead.

"...Oh shit..." Naruto quickly crouched and quietly made his way to the cover of a wall. He brought back out Wrath of the Ancients in the likelihood of him having to fight.

Pressing his back against what remained of the interior of a house, Naruto pulled back on the bow string and felt as the back end of the arrow materialised in his fore and middle fingers and thumb and then slowly peered past the edge of the wall.

The living dead; hundreds' of them shambling from place to place uncoordinated. They were unrecognisable to him. They were either to decayed beyond recognition, or to bloated for him to make out any defining features. A lot of them were both of these.

But they were people he use to know. He could recognise some of their clothes decayed as they were.

"...Fuck." grudge for his parents and the council side Naruto didn't want this to happen. Or maybe he did? No he's pretty sure he did... didn't he?

Scowling, he shook his head – he was getting confused again! Conflicting memories and personality of the other Naruto's was interfering with his own.

He hated his parents but he didn't want this to happen. He would never want this to happen.

Naruto slinked back into cover. What was it that Monty said? About the dead? They were created by the reanimation of dead cells? Yeah that was it. Or something like that. He said they were revived by Element One-Fifteen; but that can't be right. As far as he knows there's no meteor here.

Wait...his mother said there was a boulder here. But his father said they had it destroyed. And what he had seen here, that may have been a lie. Or...

"Or...is this all fake?" he murmured to himself with an inquisitive expression on his face. Naruto decided to think on it later as he had more pressing matters at hand. He contemplated on what he should do next before deciding to avoid aggravating the zombies, unless the odds are in his favour or if he has no other choice.

Call it a gut feeling, but, something tells him if he tried to fight them now he would get killed within minutes. With that in mind Naruto quickly went back the way he came as quiet as humanly possible. As he wondered around in the ruined remains of his home Naruto couldn't help but feel angry. Angry at its current state. Angry at his parents. Angry at everything really. But he kept his temper in check and didn't allow it to influence his actions. He did have a few close calls with the zombies too but thankfully he was evasive and savvy enough to give them the slip.

He would have taken them on but with the way things are now, with him having a sword and bow the young man wasn't feeling all that confident. Not to mention every single time he ran into a small group of zombies that gut feeling would come back, telling him to do something else instead of what he had originally planned. And so he did and snuck his way past the zombies or outright avoided them all together.

Back in that shattered world though he didn't have much of a choice – it was either fight or die. So he choose the third option: fight and run. Helen and the others arriving in the shattered world with the Keeper was good timing, he wasn't sure he would have lasted a lot longer if they didn't come when they did.

He finally stopped when he came across a familiar sight. Ruined houses were lined together on the street on opposite ends. Many of them were intact but had the doors kicked in. Others looked like it had an artillery shell dropped on top of them and the church on the nearby hill was reduced to a single tower, and the front section with everything else collapsed.

And down the street was his house. It had a massive hole on the roof and the front door was missing, but it was still intact for the most part. After taking another look at his surroundings for any zombies, Naruto took a deep breath and jogged to his house.

Stepping into the interior of his house Naruto made his way into the front room and took it all in. The place was the same as he remembered. There was a great amount of dust though. But from what he saw so far he wasn't surprised. There didn't seem to be anyone alive here, excluding him of course.

Inhaling and exhaling as he gave the front room of his house one last look Naruto went up the stairs to his room. It too looked the same as he remembered it.

"Hmm?" noticing something on his bed he went over and picked it up. The object in question is a hand-held recorder with a built in microphone.

But for some reason unknown to him it felt familiar. Like he had seen it before. But that couldn't be right. Going on his gut he pressed a button and listened to the pre-recorded audio that was on it. Who he heard surprised him.

It was himself.

" _I'm getting a lot of deja-vu being here."_ Naruto heard the radio him sigh with exhaustion, _"This is the fifth time I've got to this point. Five cycles of being in this mirror image of my home. There is a cycle, I am beginning to notice: I do one stupid thing, the zombies know where I am, I die within moments to minutes later, and then everything resets back to the beginning. Only I don't have that perk anymore...what was it again? Quick Revive?"_ then the message stops leaving a gob-smacked Naruto to stare at the recorder with a gaping mouth and wide eyes.

Another message began short after.

" _Turns out the other me was here. Key word being 'was'. Can't remember where I found evidence of him being here. Don't know how I lost my memory but from what I can recall, the other me learned the system of this place and used it to his advantage. He got very close to getting out of here from the looks of it too. Only the...the last cycle he was in...turned out to be his final cycle. His soul is still around I think. Watching. He never made contact with me though – so that's up for debate."_

Another message played moments after the last one ended.

" _Went out searching for the body of the other me. Got killed by the zombies in the process and I ended up back at the beginning. I lasted for what seems like a month or something. Time is meaningless here really. But it turns out the longer you stay alive, the more easy it is to recount what you've been through. Who knew, huh? And this is just a theory – but if you died pretty early, then the only thing you'll get is a gut feeling telling you to do something else. I've been getting them a lot lately so take what you will from that."_

Now sitting on the edge of his bed Naruto kept listening to message after message after message. And learned a while lot in the process. And throughout it all he kept an even expression that didn't show what he thought or truly felt.

Then he listened intently to the last message as the last cycle of himself revealed some important information to him.

" _There's a couple of things that weren't here originally. In the real world I mean. No matter how many cycles you- I go through they're always there. But in the case you don't know what I am talking about, these things are crafting tables. They're not that hard to miss; they have blueprints of weapons and other essential things on the board above them. The parts to make them are lying around somewhere. You just need to find them-"_ the message cut off from there. With that knowledge in mind Naruto stopped the recorder from playing, put it on his bed and made his way outside. He has a new mission to do.

X.X.X.X

Meanwhile back in the underground facility Helen was becoming more and more distressed as she paced back and forth. Deneve was closely examining the control panel for the teleporter for any clue as to what happened to their wayward friend. An endeavour that had little to no progress being made. It was beyond Deneve's understanding, and there was no manual to show them how it worked. As for Clare she was making sure Helen wasn't going to do something stupid – like trying to go after Naruto.

The Keeper was being strangely quiet and unconcerned. But given it knows what had happened to Naruto that was understandable. The other women still didn't notice this but that may have been because the Keeper was always quiet, unless it was speaking to Naruto.

"I don't know what to do. How this is meant to work or how to get it to work, is beyond me. What ever this thing is, and what it did to Naruto he is beyond our reach now." Deneve finally said as she backed away from the panel with a tired sigh.

Helen stopped her pacing and glared at Deneve from the corner of her eye. "So you're saying we should just abandon him?" she demanded with a fierce snarl.

Deneve sighed and shook her head. She looked at Helen and said, "We can't do anything for him until we know what this thing does and how it works. We would be doing more harm than good otherwise."

Helen growled but conceded to her best friends reasoning. Clare frowned and made her way over to her fellow hybrids and asked, "So what do we do now?"

Deneve sighed again. "We have to inform Miria."

"Do we have to?" Helen whined with growing dread in the pit of her stomach; Miria is not the type of person to give you a slap on the wrist for the littlest of mistakes.

"She's going to question why Naruto isn't with us when we come back. Might as well come clean before it gets any worse." Clare pointed out to the short haired woman.

"And let's not forget about the ghost there too. He'll be wondering why he's not with us either." Deneve added.

Helen palmed her face and dragged it down with a groan that sounded akin to frustration and reluctance mixed together. "Alright. Might as well let her know now than later." said a sighing Helen; she looked at the Keeper who was floating in place with its hands moving around the orb floating up and down on front of it. "Keeper, can you bring us back to Miria and the others in the tomb in the mountains of Alphonse?"

The other worldly being nodded and they were gone. Much in the similar manner as they appeared in the cathedral above.

When Helen, Deneve and Clare all returned with a person short everyone as expected, was quick to notice. Miria stopped asking the ghost questions about the past and focused her attention completely on Helen and the other three. When they were asked where Naruto was, Miria and everyone else was they were informed that the young man had gone missing. Which leads to the situation that is currently happening.

"What the hell do you mean he's missing?!" an enraged Miria demanded.

"The kid was there one second and the next he was gone!" Helen who was using Deneve as a shield between her and Miria tried to explain to the woman.

"Did you even try to get him back?!"

"We didn't know how to work the damn thing that took him!"

Seeing the opportunity to butt in Dempsey did so and asked Helen, "Can you recall what the thing that took him looks like? It's shape, what it's made of. Stuff like that?" When he asked that Miria stopped her arguing with Helen and looked at him with a deep frown, that showed irritation in his interruption in her interrogation. Helen on the other hand looked at the ghost for a moment and nodded in the affirmative.

"It was round. Big and wide; wide enough to fit more than people in it. And it was made out of metal. It had these...things coming out of it. Don't know what they are and there was a smaller object with round things on them." the short haired woman had tried to recount as much of the machine as she possible could. And considering she didn't know what a lot of the things about it was, her description of the MTD was fairly good.

"Sounds like an MTD you found." the ghost said a few seconds after Helen finished her description.

Flora made a disgusted face, "Sounds like a decease." with Yuma, Cynthia, Jean and Tabitha voicing their agreement.

And Dempsey rather predictably gave the women an appalled look at the misnaming and was quick to correct them, "What? No! It's not STD, it's an MTD! M T D." he looked back to Helen and added, "It's a teleporter. Meant to bring a person or a small group of people from point A to point B."

"A machine from your era?" Clare questioned.

"Yeah, it is." Miria's eyes lit up at the confirmation. No one noticed it however since it was brief. "I'm surprised you found a working one underneath that Cathedral to be honest."

"Can we use it to get him back?" Helen had a hopeful look on her face as she asked that. That quickly changed when she saw the uncertain look on the ghost's face. "We can get him back if we use it...right? Right?"

"Here's the thing...there are different MTD's. Some have to be reconnected to the mainframe after every use. Others if they were overloaded can even throw you forward in time. It can be used to bring a person back, yes, but..." he trailed off as he was uncertain on how he was going to explain the next bit.

"...But?" Miria prodded the ghost.

Dempsey sighed and crossed his arms, "...unless you know people who can actually work the damn thing then you're shit outta luck. It can be used to bring a person to you, but you need the knowledge to work the machine to do that. And everyone who does know how to work the thing is dead."

"Do you know how to work it?" questioned Jean.

"I use to know. But that was a long time ago. I haven't seen or even used an MTD since the Great War."

Jean tutted in disappointment at that. "Then we can't get him back; he's stuck wherever he is?"

"Yes. But on the likelihood he was thrown through time – you just have to wait for him to reappear."

"...How long?" Miria asked after she and the others briefly exchanged looks.

"Dunno really. One time someone overloaded the MTD, and they ended up twenty years into the future." Dempsey wasn't lying about that either; he discovered that another version of himself did end up two decades into the future with three other people thanks to one of them overloading the MTD they were using. "Just be ready for a long wait. Or if worse comes to worse...accept that he is most likely never coming back."

That was a bitter pill for them to swallow and Helen shrank in on herself when her fellow hybrids, excluding Deneve and Clare, slowly turned to give her dirty looks. God why did she lean on that thing?

No one noticed that the Keeper was gone. Having left the women when it brought Helen, Deneve and Clare back to them.

Closing her eyes with a sigh Miria took Dempsey's advice into account and decided to follow it. In the meantime they're going to have to train and get their skills and abilities honed in the years to come. There is a whole world out there – entire continents even; the organization is not going to let them get off this island without a fight.

X.X.X.X

Cycle No: Unknown.

Naruto felt weightless. He couldn't feel the ground; couldn't see his own body; all the young man could see was the familiar sight of glimmering lights. He saw pictures, images of different people instead of places this time though. A lot of them were women with familiar silver eyes and pale blonde hair. Quite a few of them were familiar and a lot of the others were not.

When he finally re-materialised on the mainframe a disorientated and dizzy Naruto stumbled fell on to his hands and knees. Growling with tightly clenched and bared teeth he barely contained the urge to scream out in frustration at how unfair his situation was.

How many times did he die now? Seventeen? Eighteen? He lost count shortly after the eleventh time, and he was slowly losing his mind going back to the beginning of the cycle after dying time and time again.

Forcing his temper down Naruto inhaled and exhaled as he got up on his feet. He checked what equipment he had on him. The audio recorder was gone, not to surprising there. It'll probably be in his room again. He didn't leave any messages for himself during the last cycle so he'll have to take it with him this time once he gets there. He still has Ancients Wrath and Bow of the Ancients in his possession so that's a two up from nothing.

"Alright Naruto. Let's try this fucking thing again." he told himself. The objective didn't change: find a way to get out of here. And maybe this time he will be one step closer at getting out of...where ever this world is. Because it's not home!

Taking a deep breath Naruto made his way back to his house. He used his previous experiences to get the best result out of this. Avoiding the hordes of zombies and outright backtracking at least twice when two small to medium sized groups were in places they weren't in the previous cycle. It was at that moment Naruto knew things were changing and he didn't like it. Not one bit.

When he made it to his family house he went to his bedroom and stopped. There was a weapon on his bed. A rifle. Along with several magazines stacked in three piles next to it. On said rifle was a sticky note. He went over, yanked the note off the weapon and read it.

 _'Dear Naruto._

 _Jesus Christ, seeing you die nearly 30 times is sad. Like really, really sad. You're a scrub mate, getting owned by things that can't even think. So I'm going to help you out – the weapon on the bed before you is a battle rifle. This was one of the most advanced weapons design of its time: the FG-42. This is the late design of it, so much of the faults would have been taken care of. Take good care of it._

 _From Naruto_

 _P.S: Zombies are fucking dumb. Distract them with sound and you'll be able to sneak past them easy peasy.'_

Naruto frowned; he may not know some of the wordings on here – what the hell is a scrub? - he was pretty sure he was being insulted. And nearly 30 times? He's really doing that bad? Nevertheless, the recording of one of the past cycles was true. The other Naruto was watching him.

He grabbed the hand-held audio recorder and made a new entry.

"Something different happened in this cycle. I have a more accurate number – of a sort – on how many times I died and restarted the cycle in this fucking place. Nearly thirty times. So I died at the most twenty six or twenty seven times. Also the other me got in contact with myself. Sort of. He sent a note along with a new weapon; a battle rifle called 'FG-42'. Looks better than the one I use to have prior to being here to be honest. Also, zombies are dumb – use noise to distract them and then sneak past them. Maybe I can get a message or something to Helen and the others...just to let them know I'm alive. A guy can dream right?"

He stopped the recording and placed the hand held device in one of his hip pouches. He grabbed the FG-42, saw it had a sling on it like his CAR-15. Happy with that he put the magazines in their own pouches on his waist. He put an extra one in the side slot of the rifle and locked it in by pulling on the small lever on the other side. He flicked up the iron sights on the front.

He held it up and looked through the iron sights and scanned his room. Satisfied he lowered the weapon and looked down at it.

"Heh. Nice."

Geared up he walked out of the room and outside. Maybe things are looking up for him now?

X.X.X.X

A bloated zombie was shambling around by itself, minding its own business. Suddenly it heard the sound of rubble moving and it swiftly turned on its heels with a menacing growl. Only for it to be cut in two by Naruto with Ancients Wrath where the blade was alight with blue flames. As the zombie fell in two Naruto was about to dismiss the sword, only to pause when a small see-through sphere that was glowing orange emerge from the body.

"What the...?" Naruto stared on, curious and astonishment as the orb floated into a nearby vase. That...never happened before. Getting an idea Naruto dismissed Ancients Wrath and brought out the FG-42. If he's going to do this then he's gonna need a little more fire-power.

This is going to be one of the stupidest things he's ever done. But at least he'll put down as many zombies as he possibly can before things go sideways.

He took a deep breath and bellowed out as loud as he possible can, "HEY! ZOMBIES! I'M RIGHT HERE!"

His voice echoed though the air and as expected Naruto heard the nearby zombies make their way towards him the second he revealed his location. It didn't take long for a zombie to poke his rotten and decaying head through a corner. And it immediately fell to the ground when a large chunk of its head was taken off by a bullet.

Like before Naruto saw a glowing see-through orange sphere emerge from the corpse. He didn't have time to check where it flew into since he was beset by more and more zombies that came out of the woodwork's. But with each zombie that died the more of those sphere things floated into the vase behind him.

He quickly looked to his left, saw a bloated zombie within arms reach of him and by pure reflex he smashed the butt of his battle rifle into the stomach of the walking corpse. It staggered back from the impact and Naruto put it down by putting a bullet into its skull. He quickly turned to look in front of him and saw a large group of undead shambling towards him. He quickly looked through the sights and blew their heads off.

They fell in seconds, with blood, skull fragments and brain-matter flying everywhere thanks to the sheer fire-power of the FG-42. Unsurprising too, since it was made to have the same output as a light sub-machine gun.

"That's what I'm fucking talking about! Die! Die! DIE!" Naruto bellowed with a mad grin.

With a corpses being piled on top of one another, and zombies being forced to step over them in order to get to Naruto, the young man was able to hold his ground without being forced to move. He quickly ran out of bullets in the magazine he is using so he quickly swapped it for a new one. He pulled the lever to lock it into place and continued firing on the crowd of zombies.

Eventually the glowing orange balls stopped coming out of the bodies signalling that the vase was full. Seeing as he wasn't going to get anything done here Naruto quickly got out of there with the zombies stumbling and shambling after him with out stretched arms. They weren't running yet which was good and since he wasn't going to fight them all in large groups now that he is on the run Naruto slung the FG-42 over his shoulder and got out his long sword and as the blade was enveloped once more with blue flames he started slashing the heads off of zombies that were unfortunate enough to get in his way.

He took a corner found it was almost blocked off by an obstacle that was high enough for a grown man to crouch or slide under. He didn't stop running and when he gained enough speed he slid under it and at slashed at the support keeping it up. The obstacle happened to be a large metal container big enough to block the entry way. With the entry way sealed the blonde could hear the zombies pounding their fists against it in an attempt to get in.

Naruto watched with abated breath and intense eyes. He was prepared to take action if the barrier didn't hold them off. Thankfully for him however the zombies quickly got bored, and because they didn't hear him make any noises the walking dead shambled off. Sighing in relief at having survived Naruto nodded to himself and took in the new location he found himself in.

His eyes narrowed with curiosity; this was something he didn't see before. It was completely new to him. Casually twirling the sword Naruto walked around and took everything in.

A tall and wide machine the same one underneath the Cathedral was in a corner with a single, blocky looking computer hooked up to it. On both sides were two tubes that was big enough for a full grown man to fit in. One of them was filled with blue liquid of some sort.

Off to his right was an doorless entryway. Naruto peered inside and saw a single table inside with a strange tube-like devices with hand-grips and knuckle protectors on them. Pinned to the wall above said table was a single blueprint. He was too far away to get any clear details on what the blueprints were though.

Near a set of tables in the middle of the room was a single black board with words written in plain English.

The list presented on it went as followed:

The mainframe – No idea who build it. Found similar ones in various locations in Germany, France, America etc. Needs to be powered on in order for it to work.

Vases – I have no idea what these vases do. The souls of the dead seem to go into them when their undead bodies are re-killed by them. Maybe if they're all filled up, something will happen?

Converters – These machines power up everything. From turning on the MTD to the defences. There's three in total and turning them on will make zombies come at you. Thankfully they're more focused on deactivating them than on me. Better weaponry is needed due to the sheer numbers.

Cycles – this world is in a constant state of flux. Every time I die everything resets to when I first arrived here. Not everything does fortunately: previous notes of mine are still around. And any progress I make is not lost. There's still a chance to get out of here.

Ragnarok DG-4 – Got the parts together on the crafting table in the next room. Should grant you the power to hold back numerous zombies at once, when slammed into the ground. Has a hand grip and a knuckle protector. Almost looks like a glowing blue spike.

Finished reading the list Naruto went back to looking around the room. He found a bed and unlike the one at his house, this one didn't have any noticeable dust on it. Well at least he has now got a safe place to say.

He wondered how he didn't find this place in the previous cycles. Maybe he forgot about it when he died the last 20 or so times?

But those converters... was that was he meant in one of the previous cycles? On how the Naruto from the Old World nearly got out of here? By turning that on he got the...MTD to work but died before he could get here?

He'll have to think on it later. Letting a sigh pass his his Naruto went over to the bed and laid on it sideways. He never realised just how physically and mentally exhausted he was until his body touched the mattress. He yawned and closed his eyes and quickly fell asleep.

X.X.X.X

Miria was in a clearing peering off in the distance. Her eyes thinned slightly as several yoki approached her general location. But she wasn't worried. She knew who they were and is happy to know they were still alive.

A little ways away leaning against a tree was Tabitha. On guard and keeping an eye on her surroundings like a hawk. Helen and Deneve were sitting around a camp fire on a log, a skinned and gutted rabbit on a spit.

Clare and Flora were mock fighting using Windcutter without yoki. Mainly to see how far the former had gotten when using it.

Cynthia, Yuma and Jean were watching the two women fighting and were talking to one another as well.

Then everyone stopped what they were doing when several women walked into the clearing parting the shrubbery as they did so.

"Nice to see you're all alive." Veronica said with a smile once she and the other hybrids assembled together. She looked around and frowned, noticing there was one person short. The human male that saved them in Pieta. "There's one missing. What happened to him?"

"He probably left a while ago." Undine said dismissively; while she was thankful for him saving everyone from that mess the Organization got them into Undine didn't know him that well. Her dismissive words made the nine women that were with him wince, something the other women picked up.

"...Something tells me it's more complicated than that." Emelia said as she exchanged a wary look with Natalie and Diana.

"...It is." Helen said with reluctance. "We found a strange device dating all the way back to the Old World. Somehow it was still working and...it did something to him."

"Which was what?" Eliza questioned with a curious frown.

"From what we were told, it brought him to a place that is out of our reach." Deneve informed them all when it was clear Helen wasn't going to say anymore. "And not even the Keeper knows where he is. It left to locate him two years ago and if possible bring him back."

And that was the last time they saw the Keeper. They have no idea if the other worldly being is still looking for him or not. And Dempsey wasn't showing up in his tomb anymore either and they had no idea why – with Naruto going missing being the only conclusion they can think of, of course.

Everyone exchanged looks and murmured to themselves. After a moment Miria coughed into her hand to bring everyone's attention on to her. "Now that is out of the way - we need to discuss some things: Undine, how has your group been doing for the past two years?"

Training was going well, if the strong woman said so herself. Dare she say it, she almost becoming proud of her girls. "Great. Juliana's sensory ability has been pushed to the limit, capable of locating us even when we're suppressing our yoki the best we can."

"I have been training to fight without using yoki. It's been difficult so far but I am now capable of fighting several yoma without them knowing where I am." Claudia said with absolute confidence in her own achievement as she had done exactly that when several yoma's were discovered hiding in the mountains near their camp sight.

"I'm training in hand to hand - in case I happen to lose my claymore. Undine is also teaching me how to fight with my claymore using one hand." Zelda added; while hybrids are capable of fighting with only one hand the way Undine does is unique. Given the muscular woman is constantly using yoki to give her the appearance she has now, Zelda is trying to fight without augmenting her body in any way."

Miria nodded and looked to Veronica next.

"I am trying to increase the speed of my healing and regeneration. The faster I can get back in combat the better." she informed Miria while rubbing her upper arms with a slight wince. Getting her arms and legs cut off and reattaching them again and again in an attempt to increase her defensive abilities hurt like a bitch.

One by one Miria was informed what the groups had been doing for the past two years. And while they were increasing the abilities associated to them, they were also trying to get some new abilities under their belt too. All in all Miria was happy with everyone's current progress.

When they were done Miria then got to one of the problems they're going to have to deal with once they're done in the mountains. "We need to find a way for the organization to not notice us once we leave the mountains. Does anyone have any ideas?"

"Getting rid of these uniforms would be a start," one spoke up. It was true, for thet past two years they had been using the surplus stock the Organization left in Pieta. If they were going to venture out, wearing their uniform wasn't exactly the brightest idea.

"Queenie has a point. We'd get discovered quickly otherwise." another added.

It was here that Clare remembered meeting Irene for the second time after getting rescued by said woman from Ophelia. And she remembered the outfit she wore. If she recalls, the black outfit the elf eared woman wore did look similar to the fabric Helen is wearing on her arms.

"Why don't we get an outfit made from the material that allows Helen to stretch her arms?" Clare suggested; everyone looked at her, with Miria giving the page boy haired woman an inquisitive frown and gestured her to continue. "I met someone a long time ago, Quicksword Irene who deserted the organization shortly after a failed mission to...kill Teresa of the Faint Smile."

"I heard of that mission." Miria said with wide eyes. "Didn't everyone die? Including Teresa, thanks to Priscilla awakening?"

"Apparently not if she found Irene." one of the hybrids pointed out.

And her knowing the Quicksword made a whole lot of sense to them now.

"What does this have to do with getting a new outfit?" Jean asked because as interesting as this is she failed to see the relevance of this and a new set of clothing.

"Irene was wearing a new outfit." Clare said. "All black. Similar to the fabric around Helen's arms."

"A black outfit?" Miria trailed off questioningly and thoughtfully. That is a sound idea – an outfit that is all black. It would make them inconspicuous for a while. Not to mention they'll be able to blend in with the shadows a lot more easily. "I like that idea. How long do you think it would take to make these outfits?"

"At most?" at Miria's nod, Clare sighed and crinkled her brow. "Taking to account we need the right material and equipment to make them, it could take us several months. Maybe even longer since there's 24 of us all together."

"We should lessen the amount of time if more than one person does it." Cynthia said.

Miria nodded with approval; the more of them that works on getting these outfits made the faster they'll be able to replace their uniforms. "Then we should get started with that as soon as possible."

X.X.X.X

Remembering she had a disguise to blend in with the populace while she was trying to avoid the organization, Clare was the only one who could venture outside of the Paburo mountains to get the materials needed for their new outfits without drawing attention to herself.

She first had to buy a set of new clothing for her fellow deserters. That way if they wanted to help get resources and food, or just mingle with the common people in the nearby towns then they can. Clare made sure to buy twenty three hooded cloaks like hers to keep the facial features of the wearer hidden and out of sight.

Pieta had been reduced to ruins a while after they had been taken out of there. This was completely unsurprising to any of them. That was their base of operations after all during the suicide campaign/mission, and the King of the North would want to be sure there's no survivors they had missed.

After seven months of going back and forth, back and forth to get the resources needed to make their new clothes, Clare with the help of Jean, Flora and Veronica and Undine had managed to get their new set of clothes ready.

With their cloaks and new attire replacing their old uniforms all twenty four women were able to be inconspicuous. They also kept their skills sharp – mock fighting during a bi-monthly meet up to see if they've improved themselves.

That was until years later they felt the time was right to come out of hiding.

X.X.X.X

In front of the blackboard stood Naruto.

How many times did he die now? He forgot to be honest. He lost count sometime after 30. But the times he died and restarted in this alternate reality was reaching its toll on him.

While he didn't look different at all there were a few changes that were noticeable. He had bags under his eyes, looked to be physically and mentally exhausted from the way he carried himself, and his uniform had blood on it a result from the constant battle with the undead.

The FG-42 while it had been taken care of had also suffered. There was a few indentation marks on the metal of the barrel, showing that something had bitten down on it. Or that Naruto had used the battle rifle to protect himself from something that tried to rip out his throat.

On the plus side he has some new weapons on his possession. Hanging from his waist are the Ragnarok DG-4. A large tube with a glowing blue liquid in it. Like it was described on the blackboard it has a hand grip and a knuckle protector. And the tube itself was held securely in place by metal clamps.

He was writing a new entry on the blackboard.

The mainframe – No idea who build it. Found similar ones in various locations in Germany, France, America etc. Needs to be powered on in order for it to work.

Vases – I have no idea what these vases do. The souls of the dead seem to go into them when their undead bodies are re-killed by them. Maybe if they're all filled up, something will happen?

Converters – These machines power up everything. From turning on the MTD to the defences. There's three in total and turning them on will make zombies come at you. Thankfully they're more focused on deactivating them than on me. Better weaponry is needed due to the sheer numbers.

Cycles – this world is in a constant state of flux. Every time I die everything resets to when I first arrived here. Not everything does fortunately: previous notes of mine are still around. And any progress I make is not lost. There's still a chance to get out of here.

Ragnarok DG-4 – Got the parts together on the crafting table in the next room. Should grant you the power to hold back numerous zombies at once, when slammed into the ground. Has a hand grip and a knuckle protector. Almost looks like a glowing blue spike.

Dragons – their heads and necks emerge from these strange glyphs on walls when zombies are killed near them. They eat the bodies of zombies that are near. Seem to be friendly enough.

Hellhounds – giant, decaying and literal flame enveloped dogs that are Hell bent on killing me. The only thing that signifies their arrival is the fog rolling in and the sound of electricity hitting the ground. They always come in groups. Easy to pick off one at a time though instead of in pairs – my FG-42 can attest to that.

Tank Soldier – zombies that are in an armoured suit. Seemingly invulnerable to bullets, the only way to kill them is to shoot off the protective see-through glass on the front of its helmet. It can fly, has an extendible claw, and can shoot fire from its wrist. Explodes when killed.

Thankfully the Hellhounds and Tank Soldier didn't get into his only safe heaven in this damned place. He didn't understand why either. The Tank Soldier was strong enough to get past that barrier blocking the entry way and the Hellhounds can teleport inside of buildings. But he wasn't about to question it. It's a small blessing in disguise anyway. And he's sure as hell isn't complaining either.

As he dropped the hand clutching the chalk to his side Naruto stepped back and looked over the new entries for any spelling mistakes. He nodded with a look of satisfaction when he saw none.

Then he heard an inaudible whispering like echo behind him. Frowning he looked partially over his shoulder and found nothing. He gazed around the room with suspicion and got more than a little wary when the same result came up.

There was no one here, yet he could hear people whispering. With a sigh Naruto shook his head and tried to ignore it as he looked back at the blackboard. Stepping to the board again Naruto wrote his objective for the day.

Objective: Get the converters online.

Finished Naruto put the chalk on the chalk holder and made his way to the container. If he gets those converters up and running then that MTD will have enough juice to work. He just has to keep the zombies off of the darn things while they're powering up.

Thankfully the first time he went outside he pushed the container out far enough for him to slip in and out with ease. The zombies are pretty fucking stupid so they weren't intelligent enough to do what he did.

Not out of the safe house Naruto went out on his search for the converters. How difficult can finding them be?


	10. Chapter 10

Primis

Chapter 9

 _'Time, is a cruel mistress. It can be both a burden and a great ally. There are realms in the universe that have been corrupted by the Dark Aether. I myself have been to one of these realms. Within it time held no meaning. The same day would...remain. Over and over. Luckily, the Keepers had brought me out of there. ' - Takeo Masaki._

"No way it can be that easy..." Naruto murmured to himself. With his FG-42 being held at the hip with one hand and the other holding a map with three circles on it. The map itself was a crude drawing of his home – in map form, and had three circles on it.

The word "Converter" was written above the circles.

And "Safe House" was written on one of the buildings at the bottom of the page. So he had a location for the converters and his safe house.

Naruto was in the remains of a house with rubble blocking off a lot of the places he can go. Including the upstairs since the staircase collapsed. Thankfully said rubble made a convenient makeshift staircase that let him to go to the first floor anyway. He was taking cover behind a broken down wall inside of a bedroom, map in hand.

He knew where he was – the map was surprisingly detailed if crude.

While getting to those converters looked easy on paper, in real life it was a whole different story. There were hordes of zombies blocking his route to the three of them. And the only way to get to them is to either go through them, or distract them enough for him to sneak past.

Sighing he folded the paper and placed it in his pocket and peered over the wall. A horde of zombies could be seen shambling around in the distance. Thankfully they weren't smart, not like that zombie yoma that could speak and teleport.

Holding the battle rifle with both hands Naruto made his way down the rubble and out the house. Hearing inaudible whispering again that's more feminine Naruto stopped and swiftly turned around with the FG-42 raised.

There was no one there. Confused and wary he looked around momentarily before he slowly lowered the rifle until the tip of the gun was pointing at the ground. He exhaled and shook his head. He can't get distracted now.

X.X.X.X

As he made his way to the converter Naruto was steadily getting more and more irritated at the persistent whispering. He ignored it as much as he could though. He took a few short cuts through the buildings to get past the horde blocking his way and continued on to his destination.

Eventually the incomprehensible whispering got to him. He suddenly stopped moving and dropped the FG-42, thankfully the strap was over his shoulder. Naruto tightly pressed his hands against the sides of his head and shouted at the top of his lungs.

"STOP IT! STOP WHISPERING! STOOOP IIIIIIIIT!" the whispering abruptly stopped, but at the cost of him attracting the attention of the nearest zombie horde.

Naruto quickly looked over his shoulder in alarm. The zombies all turned to him one by one and when they saw a living person, they shambled their way over to him.

"Oh shit..." Naruto took a few steps back before turning around and running to the converter. There was no way in hell he was going to fight against them by himself. Ragnarok DG-4 or not, him taking on an army that can't feel fear, pain and exhaustion is both suicidal and idiotic.

As he ran Naruto fished the hand drawn map out from his coat pocket to see where he had to go. He put it back in his pocket again after getting a good eye on it.

After several minutes of running Naruto finally reached his destination. The converter was a large machine with a tube attached to it. It looked similar to the ones he found attached to the MTD. Only this one was a lot bigger and much wider. The main machine had several buttons on it with the most obvious one being bigger than the others and red.

Not hesitating in the least he walked over and smashed his fist against the button. The machine whirred to life and Naruto turned around upon hearing the noises of the dead howling in the distance.

"I do hope you're ready for this. The conversion generator takes a while to power up completely." freezing at hearing the very, very familiar voice Naruto slowly turned in the direction it came from.

What he saw surprised him. It was himself. But it wasn't him. Too many differences. The posture. The clothing.

This Naruto had spiky blonde hair, like he did. And just like him the other Naruto had a lack of whiskers on his cheeks. However he had shorter hair and more casual clothing.

For simplicities sake, Naruto Namikaze will be referred as Naruto 1. The other Naruto, until his last name has been revealed will simply be referred to as Naruto 2.

Naruto 2 was leaning against the converter, staring at Naruto 1 with a look of bemusement.

"No. You're not real. You're just a figment of my imagination." Naruto 1 said with denial; this person in front of him had to be a result of him being exposed to Element 115. But never before did any of his illusions take physical form.

Naruto 2 raised a brow. "Whatever you say, Namikaze."

Naruto 1 narrowed his eyes in suspicion he never told him his last name. "How do you know my last name? No. Wait. It would make sense for you to know who I am if you're a figment of my imagination. So why are you here?"

Naruto 2 shrugged and straightened himself. "Your psyche is under a lot of pressure. From the amount of times of you dying over and over and having to relive it from the beginning. It's starting to take its toll on your mind."

"So what? I made you up to keep myself stable or something?" Naruto 1 questioned the figment of his imagination.

Naruto 2 shrugged in a so and so manner. Neither confirming or denying Naruto 1's suspicions. Hearing a noise he looked over Naruto 1's shoulder and frowned. "It looks like you have company."

True to his word when Naruto 1 looked over his shoulder, he saw the zombies pursuing him had arrived. Turning around on the balls of his feet, he quickly raised his weapon, took aim and fired in single bursts at the horde.

The zombies fell one by one forcing the others step over the bodies. It didn't do much to impede them though. As they got closer and closer he realised shooting them one at a time like this wouldn't keep them at bay for long.

"Y'know, these converters look to be very durable machines." Naruto 2 casually said as he leaned against said machine once again. "You can get a few of them get close and take them out that way." he added on as a suggestion.

Naruto 1 immediately put that thought down. "And risk it getting destroyed? Fuck no!"

"It was just a suggestion. No need to bite my head off." Naruto 2 said with his hands raised in surrender.

"What do these machines convert anyway?" Naruto 1 held the battle rifle by the hip and went fully automatic. The bullets ripping through the decayed and bloated flesh of the dead. He was quick to change magazines when the one currently in the chamber had run out of bullets.

"Element One-Fifteen." Naruto 2 said over the gunfire.

As he was forced to reload his battle rifle again, Naruto 1 recalled Monty saying One-Fifteen is able to raise the dead. That explained and confirmed his suspicions why there are walking corpses.

Despite the pile of bodies they had to step over, the zombies inevitably managed to get their rotten feet on to the foundation. Scowling Naruto redirected his aim and went fully automatic. The bullets met minimal resistance as it tore through their skin, muscle and skull. The zombies behind them met the same fate and fell on top of one another in a pile.

Then something surprising happened. A huge pulse of electricity shot out of the conversion machine in every direction. Any zombie it touched dropped to the ground. As if a string on a puppet had been cut.

Naruto 1 was very surprised and taken aback by this. "What the hell?" he breathed out in confusion.

"One-Fifteen enhanced electric pulse." began Naruto 2. "Any zombie it touches dies. That was why I suggested letting them get close."

Naruto 1 briefly glanced at him from over his shoulder. "How do you know this?" he asked, his tone curious and suspicious at the same time. He didn't know the conversion machine could even do electric pulses. So how did this illusion know about it?

"You're a smart person, Namikaze. You figure it out."

Naruto 1 shook his head in a dismissive manner and changed his weapon for his bow. He let loose arrow after arrow, staring as each one reduced entire groups into messy chucks and dismembering those that were close.

Eventually the horde of zombies were killed in combination of Naruto's fire-power from Wrath of the Ancients and his FG-42, and the electric pulses from the machine. Taking a moment to catch his breath Naruto, who was leaning forward with his hands on his knees looked at Naruto 2.

"Okay, let's say for the moment, that you're not a figment of my imagination. What would that make you? A ghost?"

"It is the only logical conclusion isn't it?"

"Or it could be that my mind is playing tricks on me. Making me see things that aren't there." he countered.

"Or maybe your mind is not playing tricks on you and I am, in all actuality, a ghost." Naruto 2 said it with such conviction he thought it was true.

Naruto 1 growled in annoyance. This wasn't going anywhere. He dropped the conversation all together before it can escalate into an argument. Naruto 2 arched a brow at that but didn't say anything.

"Conversion generator one: active. Proceed to conversion generators: two and three." a masculine, yet mechanical sounding voice said from the machine.

"Looks like the first one is on." Naruto 2 stated the obvious as he stopped leaning on the machine. "You'd best go and turn on the others."

"...Right." fishing the map out of his pocket Naruto 1 checked for the nearest one. Nodding to himself he put the map away again and ran to the right of the conversion machine. As he walked, Naruto 1 looked over his shoulder; he wasn't surprised to see the other Naruto casually walking after him, hands in his trouser pockets.

He turned to look ahead of himself and frowned thoughtfully. Now that there was some time to think clearly without the threat of death, he noticed something. It wasn't all that bad to be honest. Ever since the other Naruto showed up the whispering stopped. He had no idea what this meant but it solidified the belief that Naruto 2 was just a figment of his imagination.

"I'm curious about something." Naruto 1 started up a conversation.

"And that would be?"

"How long have you been here for?"

"You think I'm a part of your imagination still?"

"Yes. But humour me."

"Alright." Naruto 2 shrugged. "I haven't got the faintest idea. It could have been for centuries and I wouldn't know."

"Because it goes back to when you first arrived, right?"

Naruto 2 nodded in affirmation, "That and it doesn't turn to night." he pointedly looked at Naruto 1. "You noticed it, right? How it always seems to be in the middle of the day?"

"It's not that strange." Naruto 1 countered, "There are places in the world where the sun never sets." he stopped walking and looked up at the sky with squinted eyes and a deep frown. Strange. He didn't notice that before... "But now that you mention it – it is strange. Back home the sun used to set. And it didn't look like that either."

Naruto 2 looked up and nodded with approval. The sun wasn't a ball of orange magma and plasma anymore. It was blue. And it was a lot closer to the planet now – how nothing was affected by the heat or gravitational pressure escaped them.

"And what does that tell you?" he asked and Naruto Namikaze looked at the ruined buildings of his home- no, the imitation of his home.

"That this isn't where I was raised. This isn't my home...?" he trailed off when he heard the whispering again, then to his surprise Naruto saw that the environment around him began to warp and twist around him.

X.X.X.X

Then he found he wasn't outside anymore. He was inside of a room that is occupied. Two people sat on opposite sides of a table that has a recording radio on it. Wanting to get a better look at their features Naruto walked to the end of the table and observed.

The oldest was an bald headed man, with a white scruffy beard. His clothes consists of a white lab coat, a grey under shirt with a matching tie and black trousers.

The other was a thirteen year old boy. And to his shock the young teenage boy had a familiar set of eyes, and had the same spiky blonde hair as he did. It was him! Or at least another version of him. The only difference was, the boy had three whisker marks on his cheeks.

"What is your name child?" the grown asked politely and professionally asked.

The boy sighed and leaned on the table with a bored look on his face, "My name is Naruto Uzumaki. I don't remember where I live. Where I came from. I don't even remember the day I was born...only the month." he even sounded bored as he spoke into the microphone provided to him.

"What is the furthest you can remember?" the man asked asked as he too leaned on the table.

Naruto saw the young one scrunch his face as he tried to think. The boy eventually shrugged, "The furthest I can remember is literally three days ago when I woke up here."

The bald man sighed and stopped the tape recorder from playing. "It appears, young one, that you have a severe case of amnesia. Now I see two possibilities. Either it will resolve itself in time, or you may never regain your memories."

The young Naruto, to the surprise of the Namikaze, shrugged his shoulders in a purely dismissive manner. "Oh well. It's just memories. I can easy replace those with new ones."

Ludvig narrowed his eyes confusingly at the blonde. "Do you not wish to know of your own past?"

The young Naruto shook his head from side to side. "No, I don't. Why should I bother if I can't remember anything about that is worth bothering?"

The scene began to twist and warp around him again. The youngest of the Namikaze's didn't do or say anything as he was trying to figure out what the hell he just saw.

X.X.X.X

When he came to – the Namikaze found he was back outside and he was being shook. He looked at the person shaking him and was taken aback.

"Ah. You're back.." Naruto 2 said with a smile; he pat Naruto 1 on the shoulder and made a 'follow me' gesture. "C'mon, the next conversion machine isn't far."

As Naruto 2 walked ahead, Naruto 1 was looking at his shoulder with stunned realisation. He looked at Naruto 2 with wide eyes as the gears turned in his head.

Was he...?

Yes. He is.

But if here's here, then does that mean...?

It has to be.

He quickly pushed the thoughts aside and ran to catch up to the ghost. When he finally reached him Naruto 1 slowed his pace until he was walking side by side with him. Naruto 1 gave his other self a look, sighed and looked ahead.

"I met him you know." he began. "His spirit I mean.

Naruto 2 curiously glanced at the Namikaze from the corner of his eye. "Oh? Met who?"

"'Tank' Dempsey."

Naruto 2 stopped walking in surprise at the reveal; he quickly caught up with the Namikaze and looked at him with a look of need. He needed to know what happened. He had to know. "Y-You met Tank? How is he?"

"Well despite being dead the man's fine." Naruto 1 revealed. He looked at the ghost and almost pitied the pleading look the Naruto of the Old World was giving him. "After you went missing he didn't stop searching for you. Neither of them did."

As he looked down at the ground Naruto 2 smiled softly at this revelation. "...They never gave up." then he looked at the Namikaze as what he said sunk in. "Wait. You don't think I'm an illusion anymore?"

Naruto 1 chuckled and patted him on the shoulder before moving on. "You're a smart person Naruto. You figure it out." he threw the words spoken to him 20 minutes prior back at the ghost.

X.X.X.X

It took them around an hour or two to get to the second conversion generator. Which was near the tower his father would work at if it were still standing. Instead the tower was in ruins and barely standing at all.

The youngest of the Namikaze's was standing beside the conversion machine, looking over the buttons with the ghost of Naruto 1 keeping an eye out. "Alright." he held his hand over the large red button, "Time to get this over with." then just as he was about to bring his hand down on it, he was interrupted.

"Wait!" he paused abruptly and looked at Naruto 2. "If you turn that on you're going to get swarmed from all directions."

"...then what do you suppose I should do?" he asked, sighing as he turned, bringing his hand to his side. "I don't have a lot of options."

Naruto 2 rubbed his chin. "There may be a way to get help." he began, "There are alters around that are meant to bring something to help you. But they're really hard to spot if you don't know what you're looking for."

"Really?" he turned to face the ghost completely. "I never saw any notes, or heard any previous recording referencing to these alters."

"That is because I found out after permanently dying here. And by then it was too late." he replied, confirming that he is in fact the Naruto of the Old World, thrown forward in time and went missing four centuries ago. "As for you – well you didn't know where to look is all. In fact..." he looked off to his right, "...one of them is close by."

Naruto 1 looked in the direction he was looking but saw nothing. Frowning he looked back at the ghost and back again. He didn't see anything.

However his curiosity got the better of him; humming the Namikaze walked over with the ghost following after him. He kept in the general direction the ghost was looking – until he got near a wall of an ruined house.

That was when it happened. A stone tab with an symbol engraved onto the surface floated in the air in front of him. Then other pieces began to assemble in front of it. A disembodied head or skull, that had no eyes was mounted in the middle of a circle like symbol on it.

While Naruto 1 was surprised by this Naruto 2 was excited. "This is great!" he exclaimed, "It's intact! How fortuitous!"

"It wasn't meant to be intact?"

Naruto 2 completely ignored him in his excitement, "Go on." he gestured to the alter, "Touch it."

Naruto 1 frowned and looked at the assembled alter. It was strange how it just... assembled the way it did. Then again he had seen weirder shit. What's one more?

Sighing he reached out and pressed his hand against the alter. Gasping as it suddenly lit up, the Namikaze withdrew his palm and took several steps back.

X.X.X.X

It had been searching for nearly a decade. Everywhere it looked, several dimensions, in the past, present and future, the search turned up a failure.

And so the seeking continues.

Then it saw it – from its eyeless gaze it saw a hole.

What was this now...? Could he...? Yes. Perhaps he may.

With confidence welling through its being, the creature flew into the rift.

X.X.X.X

Naruto covered his eyes when the light got too bright – then it vanished as quick as it appeared. When he lowered his arm his blue eyes grew wide in recognition. The creature before him was wearing dark red robes with gold embroidery, a hood and a symbol proudly displayed on its chest; a circle with four ends jutting out.

It scanned its new found surroundings in bewilderment for a moment. It's body language showing confusion, then distress at what it saw with its eyeless gaze, and finally anger when it detected Element One-Fifteen in slowly moving around in the ruined remains of Konoha.

Then it found Naruto staring and just like that it calmed down. It didn't see the other Naruto there, because he had faded out of sight. Allowing the Namikaze and his other worldly companion the privacy to reconnect with each other.

" **...Naruto?"** Naruto's breath hitched upon hearing the familiar voice of his other worldly companion. It sounded hopeful. " **Is...that you?"**

He let out a relieved laugh as he nodded with verification. And like that the Keeper slumped over in relief.

" **You have no idea how long I have been searching for you."**

"How long have I been gone?" he asked.

" **Seven years."** said the Keeper.

To be honest, he was expecting the years he was gone for to be a lot more. It certainly felt like it.

" **...You...look different."** the Keeper said after it leaned towards Naruto for a closer look. It noticed the bags under his eyes, the physical and mental exhaustion. And the blood splatter on his uniform. **"What happened to you?"**

"Eh." he shrugged with a tired smirk, "It's... a long story"

The Keeper crossed its arms, **"I have time."**

He sighed and scratched his head. "Alright. Then, to make a long story short: Every time I die, I go back to when I first came here. Depending on how long I lasted, I either remember everything I did, or forget what I did."

The Keeper didn't say anything after that revelation. Naruto nervously shifted on his feet, until **"...How many times did you die?"** prompt the Keeper questioningly.

"I lost count after 30." he shrugged. "Pretty sure I'm somewhere in the late thirties though. The recordings I left myself certainly helped keep track."

The Keeper wasn't happy if the clenching and unclenching of its three fingered hands were any indication. It briefly looked around again.

" **And exactly are we?"** calmly asked the Keeper – though Naruto noticed there was a slight hiss in its voice this time. While the Keeper had seen a part of his home before – and it was only a small part, it was in a much better condition.

This version of his home town looked like a war zone; and neither of them were near his house. It wasn't surprising for Naruto to learn the Keeper didn't recognise it.

"Welcome to the village hidden by leaves! Konoha!" Naruto said with wide open arms and a dramatic flare. "My home – or what's left of it." he added in a more somber manner. Sighing Naruto turned around and stared at the ruins.

" **You feel... saddened?"**

Naruto nodded. "Despite what you think – I don't hate my home." he admitted sighingl "I...dislike my parents for what they did, and I abhor the people who practically signed away my freedom. But I don't hate it. So yeah, I feel sad to see it in this state."

When he looked back at the Keeper Naruto saw approval. It didn't say anything but its body language told him everything he needed to. Not to mention he could swear it was grinning – then again that mouth of his...? hers...? it's... looked like it was always grinning.

Clearing his throat Naruto quickly changed the subject, "I've been trying to find away to get out of here. Right now I'm trying to turn those-" he paused to point at the conversion machine nearby – still not powered and cleared of zombies. "-on, to power a machine I found. It's the same as the one that brought me here."

The Keeper nodded. If the human child found an MTD then getting out of here would be a lot easier than it thought. **"Not a bad start. What about weapons? Do you have anything to use against the dead?"**

"I still have my Ancients Wrath and Bow of the Ancients." he replied.

" **Anything you don't have?"**

"The weapon you gave me is gone and I don't have that... err... Quick Revive anymore." Naruto paused, then snapped his fingers, "I have a new weapon though!"

The Keeper nodded. It had noticed the Namikaze carrying an FG-42 instead of the CAR-15.

" **Very well. We had best get started on getting you out of here."** said the Keeper; it started floating over to the conversion generator with Naruto following. **"I shall protect you as best I can. Turn it on."**

Nodding Naruto went and pressed the big red button. The conversion machine whirred to life and in the distance the agitated howls of the walking dead was heard.

"Here we go..." Naruto murmured.

He calmly brought his battle rifle up and looked through the iron sights. The Keeper meanwhile made an sphere of electricity appear in the middle of its palms. It began to float in-between them.

The ghost Naruto hadn't come out of hiding yet. He was still invisible and watching the Keeper and Namikaze from one of the still standing rooftops. Like he suspected the shambling, stumbling zombies swarmed the two from all directions.

Namikaze opened fire on them without hesitation. Putting down half a dozen and dismembering many others in less than ten seconds.

The Keeper didn't attack until many of the walking dead got close. When they did hell broke loose. The Keeper Protector, as it is known to him threw its arms out, electricity shooting from the sphere and into the zombies. The zombies were shocked and thrown off their feet. The shockwave killing and knocking back all zombies in its near vicinity.

It would throw its arms out in front of it twice, and then, raise them above its head in quick succession. While simple it did its job in killing zombies by the dozens. The Keeper stayed close to the Namikaze, and did its job in making sure the zombies were not getting close to him.

An electro pulse would shoot out of the converter too with every few minutes – causing even more zombies to die.

He could see it as plain as day – the Keeper and Kamikaze are an effective team. One he hadn't seen since the second Human-Apothicon war. And yes - there had been two Human-Apothicon wars. The first during the crusades some six thousand years ago – the second four thousand years ago.

As the zombies began to thin out the Keeper stopped its onslaught. It turned and saw Naruto behead a few zombies with the flame enveloped Ancients Wrath. He then Spartan kicked one into an rapidly encroaching group, switched his sword for the bow and removed them from this plain of existence curtsy of a flame tipped arrow that deduced them to bloody decaying chunks of meat and bone.

Another pulse wiped out the remaining zombies allowing them to have a momentary breather. Naruto flicked his sword before it vanished from his grip. Sighing the blood splattered blonde walked over to the conversion generator and reloaded his FG-42 in preparation for the next wave. The Keeper floated next to him protectively.

Neither of them were disappointed when the next horde of zombies came.

They exchanged looks and nodded.

Naruto immediately brought his battle rifle up and opened fire in short controlled bursts. The Keeper teleported itself in the middle of the horde and started throwing its arms above its head.

The sheer _power_ belonging to a single Keeper is great. This one is no different. When it was unleashed, the zombies were reduced to mush and were literally thrown clear through the sky in a mass of electricity, mixed with blue smoke from the impact of electricity and wind. The shockwave that was unleashed managed to shake the ground, brief as it was.

It was a sight to behold.

Pulling out his bayonet with one hand Naruto stabbed a zombie through the eye with it; he grimaced in disgust as he got blood on his face. Thinning his lips the blonde aimed the barrel of the FG-42 at the zombies' torso and opened fire. The bullets tearing and ripping through muscle and bone with easy.

He yanked the bayonet out and threw it, impaling a zombie in the torso.

It did nothing to impede it.

Naruto didn't let that deter him however. He brought the rifle up and pulled the trigger – the recoil shaking his arms as he tried to keep it in place. It did the job in mowing down the zombie impaled with his bayonet and several others around it though.

He yanked the bayonet out of the fallen zombie, and back peddled before any could get their hands on him. He put long eight inch blade back into its holder.

The Keeper suddenly appeared in front of him and threw its arm out. Electricity shot out of the sphere. Killing zombies instantaneously by the dozens through a combination of electrocution and shock-waves.

"Ho-ly shit!" Naruto laughed, "You just... blew them all over the place!"

The Keeper turned and gave him a mocking bow. Naruto just laughed, until he caught something appearing behind the Keeper. He quickly shot the creature in the head before it could do anything.

The Keeper turned just in time to see a partially headless zombie collapse drop to the floor like a sack of potatoes.

Naruto walked over to get a closer look at the corpse. "Huh." he said, "I haven't seen one of those in a long time."

Slightly pale purple skin that was filthy and rotten. Two elongated limbs with thick veins on the surface. Razor sharp teeth and claws that were two inches long. It had some other wounds on it – a severely deep cut on the torso that had maggots trying to dig inside of.

Not taking any chances of it rising again Naruto summoned Ancients Wrath and beheaded it completely.

The Keeper looked at him, **"You know what this is?"** it asked gesturing to the corpse.

Naruto nodded acknowledgedly as he dismissed the sword. "I fought one of these when I first ran into...? Helen and Deneve...? Anyway – it was a bastard to fight. Kept on making itself and me disappear to different places as we fought."

As the Keeper listened to the explanation Naruto surveyed his surroundings with suspicion and wariness. It was quiet. Too quiet. He didn't trust it. He quickly replaced the magazine in his FG-42 for a fresher one and realised he was getting low on ammo. Not good.

The Keeper started looking around as well and soon the two were back to back.

" **...What is the likelihood of there being more?"**

"Knowing my luck? It'll be high,"

As if he had been heard several more... had appeared. In two dozens. They were on the rooftops; from what Naruto could see by the distance between them, they were in various states of decay.

Some where in the early stages. Some were in the middle. Some were late. They also had more limbs; four arms, six arms, four legs and arms, even tentacles spouting from their backs.

"Pretty... pretty high." the blonde shakingly concluded.

The Keeper growled as electricity raced up and down its arms and hands.

If these creatures think they're going to win – it'll gladly prove otherwise!


	11. Chapter 11

Primis

Chapter 10

As he stood back to back with the Keeper, firing at the zombified yoma's, Naruto decided it was official.

He _hated_ these fucking things.

He took aim and opened fire. The 7.92x57mm Mauser bullets from the battle rifle missing their targets a mile wide, because they would _fucking_ spam their bullshit teleporting ability to get out of harms way.

A tentacle came at him from his blind spot and knocked the FG-42 out of his hand. Thankfully the rifle sling was still over his shoulder – all that knocking did was let the battle rifle hang at his waist.

"Ah! Shit!" one of the tendrils coiled around his wrist and started pulling him away. He clenched his fist and pulled back, "Keeper! A little help here!"

Thankfully the otherworldly being was quick to react. It turned around and threw its arm out. Electricity shot out of the sphere, shocking the tendril into uncoiling the Namikaze and making the zombie yoma howl out in irritation. As Naruto stumbled back the Keeper threw its other arm out. The zombified yoma was killed instantaneously by the shockwave – throwing it off its feet and colliding head first into the wall of a one storey building behind it.

The sheer force the corpse was under when colliding with the wall had collapsed the entire structure. If it wasn't dead. Again. It definitely was now.

After seeing that, the rest of the zombified yoma were careful to not get close. To either of them.

"Thanks." Naruto said.

" **You're welcome."**

Both Naruto and Keeper got themselves back to back with one another once more. Now more cautious than ever before.

" **How did you beat it the first time?"** the Keeper asked. If it could find out how Naruto had managed to kill one of these things, then may be it can use that same tactic to kill them too.

"Stabbed it through the head with Ancients Wrath after Helen and Deneve cut it down." he answered as he was now looking through the iron sights of his FG-42. "They had to throw their swords at it from range though. The damn thing kept taking me from place to place every time they got close."

" **Sometime tells me they will not be as easy to kill."**

Naruto let out a humourless chuckle, "No. They probably won't. There's more than one this time around." the blonde pointed out. "Still... if we stay together and watch each others backs, we'll pick 'em off."

As if to challenge that statement a yoma with three pairs of arms _roared_ and teleported in front of Naruto. Nails lengthening and sharpened tips for piercing damage as it intended to skewer him. It got its chest reduced to bloody gibblets by the 7.92x57mm Mauser bullets for its trouble.

It, however, didn't fall down and die. It instead staggered back before looking at the human with hungry glowing red eyes. It hissed and made to lunge at him. Until Naruto adjusted his aim and reduced its head to bloody chunks.

Then it fell down and died.

Naruto replaced the magazine for a newer one now that it was almost empty.

Behind him the Keeper was doing its job at ripping the zombified yoma's a new asshole. The electricity shocked them to the point their heads exploded – others around the point of impact were thrown back from the shockwave and were killed instantly.

The Keeper did it too more times and it was only when a electro pulse shot out of the conversion machine that the zombified yoma decided it was time to cut their losses. They all teleported out of there at the same time, leaving Naruto and the Keeper by themselves, surrounded by corpses.

"...They buggered off." Naruto said after a tense moment.

" **It seems so..."** the Keeper said, then it turned to look at him. **"You've gotten better. Much better than the last time we last saw each other."** it noted, referring to a time where Naruto was barely able to use the CAR-15 when he first got his hands on it.

He shrugged and shouldered the FG-42. "What can I say?" he said, walking past the Keeper and back to the conversion machine which was now finished powering up. "These disillusions I'm going through came in handy."

" **I didn't expect anyone being able to learn from the 115 induced illusions."** the Keeper said in surprise.

"I didn't expect it either. But after seeing different...me's? In various stages in life, using weapons I can only dream about? Well... you tend to pick up a few things."

" **So what now?"** the Keeper asked as it followed Naruto who was now heading to another location.

"...Now we activate the third and final converter and finish this." Naruto replied.

X.X.X.X

"...I'm going to need more ammo..." Naruto sighed.

The path to the third converter was separated by another horde of zombies. Unsurprising there. However unlike the previous two he encountered this one was more densely compact. They're so tightly pressed together that getting past them would be next to impossible unless they were thinned out.

And he didn't have enough ammo for that. His sword and bow could be useful here but the zombies have numbers on their side. Doing that would be stupid.

Naruto took a quick look around; no alternate paths to take. Which means he can either backtrack and find another way around or he can go ahead and force his way through.

" **We can take them."** said the Keeper in full confidence.

And the Keeper was with him.

Naruto briefly glanced at the otherworldly being, sighed again and looked in front of him with thinned lips.

"I don't suppose you can help me feel a little heavier?" he asked, referring to his now less than satisfactory amount of bullets for his FG-42. Naruto made sure to let the Keeper know what he was talking about by motioning his battle rifle.

The Keeper looked at him, then at the FG-42, then back up at him again. **"...here."** it said, raising its arm and pointing its palm at him.

Naruto felt himself get a little heavier. As if multiple objects suddenly appeared in his pouches. He gave the Keeper a nod of thanks – to which the Keeper returned.

He was just about ready to get this show on the road, until he saw something; a glyph on a wall at the front of the horde. He smiled; he knew what that meant. Naruto took aim at the closest zombie to the glyph and pulled the trigger.

The zombies sharply turned to the person making the noise – even as the bullet tore through the skull and brain of the unlucky one. The Keeper didn't move even as the glyph glowed momentarily and a massive, scaly red head with horns and burning red eyes emerged from the glyph. Fire literally dripped down from its maw and onto the floor. Its fiery red eyes hungrily stared at the mass of walking corpses.

The head of a dragon.

The dragon reared its head back, maw opening and let out a loud roar. Fire shot out of its throat and into the sky like a flame-thrower. Then it lunged down and bit down at one of the zombie.

Naruto and the Keeper weren't idle while that was happening. The blonde was felling many zombies as they shambled over to him now they knew he was there. The Keeper was floating beside and behind him protectively. It hadn't attacked yet nor was it going to – not until the zombies were in range.

The dragon was having a field day. It was having a lot of fun burning and tearing its teeth into the rotting torsos of the living dead.

And there was so many of them too!

How can this get any better!?

The dragon turned to the left when it heard noises. Loud noises. And it saw Naruto firing at the zombies – killing them and leaving the bodies for it to eat, how kind of him! And the Keeper floating around Naruto protectively.

Now that was an odd sight if it ever saw one.

The zombies were now beginning to run instead of stumbling and shambling. Arms outstretched to latch and grab. When they were in range of being hit, the Keeper threw out its arms; electricity shot out of the sphere and palms; a zombie was shocked and then thrown off their feet and into the air. Dozens followed after it, during the shockwave that happened moments after the electricity collided with the formerly walking corpse.

The dragon didn't mind though. They were killing the zombies and were overall making it easier to eat them.

Naruto kept advancing, he never stopped. He adjusted his aim so he was aiming at their heads instead of their torso. Heads were partially blown apart, skull fragments and brain matter flying through the air as the zombies fell under fire.

Then the Keeper did a ballsy move – it teleported away from Naruto's side and reappeared on the left side of the horde. The zombies around the Keeper were distracted almost immediately, but before they were able to do anything the Keeper threw its arms above its head.

One second there was a flash of light, and another second, hundreds of bodies flew up and into the sky. Flying in all directions. They were so high in the sky, they would die upon impact with the ground.

That didn't stop the dragon from lunging forward, snatching one of the many corpses from the sky. It chewed up the corpse for a moment or two, swallowed the chunks down, before lunging down with a gaping mouth to devourer two more corpses.

Naruto brought down his battle rifle and let go of it, letting the weapon to dangle at his waist. Grabbing the Ragnarok DG-4's clamped on his waist, he detached them from his waist and pressed the trigger to activate them, the blue coloured fluid in the glass container glowed upon the DG-4's activation.

As he approached the now thinning horde the blonde started off walking, then his pace picked up until he was outright sprinting.

With a yell Naruto jumped up in the air, the DG-4's raised above his head and as gravity took hold, the young man brought the DG-4's down. Slamming the spikes into the ground the DG-4's emitted massive, powerful electric shock-wave that threw all zombies around him back, killing them instantly.

That didn't stop the others that were unaffected to try and close the gap Naruto provided them. They were unhindered by the stream of fire from the dragon. Grumbling Naruto embedded the spikes firmly in the ground, a lightning trap was created around him, zapping nearby zombies that came close to the energy ball.

This trap gave him enough time to replace the magazine in his FG-42 for a fresher one. He took aim and opened fire once more. The zombies fell to the ground dead and dismembered, toppling over one another in an attempt to get at him. The dragon stopped them by pulling itself further out of the glyph that grew bigger to compensate for this. The dragon's front paws and a large portion of its upper body, wings included emerged from the glyph.

Naruto froze as the dragon partially pulled itself out of the glyph. He stiffened nervously when it looked at him, fire dripping from its maw and to the ground. He exhaled with relief when the giant, fire breathing lizard with wings turned its attention to the zombies.

It swiped at them with its forelegs. Lunged down and tore off the upper body of one of the more bloated corpses. All the while it kept dragging itself out of the glyph until it was out completely with said glyph disappearing seconds after.

The dragon was still in its infancy. It was the size and height of a double decker bus.

"Oh...crap..." he breathed.

He grabbed the DG-4's and attached them back to his waist before backing away from the dragon. It's tail lashed out as it roared, it smashed into the buildings around it causing them to collapse into rubble and making an even bigger mess.

The Keeper got the hell out of dodge as the dragon leapt at the remainders of the horde of zombies. Bodies were flying everywhere curtsy of the tail whipping at them, zombies were being crushed under the dragon's fore and hind legs.

It was... simply beautiful... and terrifying. Definitely terrifying.

"Keeper, what should we do?"

" **Don't interfere. She's take care of them."**

Naruto looked at the Keeper with surprise. "It's a she?" how can it tell what gender the dragon is?

The Keeper nodded but otherwise said nothing.

The two of them watched as the female dragon tore into the zombies. Ripping into their flesh, flattening them under her fore and hind legs, and tail. Swiping them off their feet and roasting them to a well fine crisp with her fire.

Once it was all said and done no zombies were left standing. The female dragon slowly turned to face the human and Keeper and walked over to them. Heart beating rapidly a nervous Naruto took a step back, but didn't do anything that would provoke her because he noticed she wasn't doing anything that was threatening. Except for the dripping fire but that may be a dragon thing.

She stopped in front of them, sat on her haunches and stared.

Naruto... was at a loss on what to do. This was something way beyond his very limited set of skills. But... seeing she wasn't hostile, now at least, he wanted to do something. Something that will, potentially, have repercussions on his welfare.

He took a cautious step forward and paused when the female dragon looked at him. It...growled...in a non-threatening manner at him?

"Can you understand me...?" he cautiously asked the fire breathing, and winged lizard. The dragoness curiously cocked her head to the side. Naruto licked his lips and added, "If you understand me, then do this." he pointed at his own head and nodded.

The dragoness cocked her head to the other side. Then positioned her head correctly. She looked at Naruto and then at the Keeper, and back to Naruto again before nodding affirmatively.

"Oh." Naruto looked towards his companion for advice. He looked at the Keeper for advice on what to do next, a similar gesture done by the she-dragon. She looked at the alien and waited.

The Keeper sighed and crossed its arms against its robed chest. **"...She's friendly. And she can understand you – ask her if she wants to join you. The more help you have the better your chances getting out of here are."**

"Alright." Naruto nodded with acknowledgement and looked back at the she-dragon.

Said she-dragon was glaring confusedly at the Keeper; all she heard was hissing. How is it that this human can understand it?

"Do you want to join me?" he politely asked her; there was no need to be demanding and mean to her. She is after all a man-eating dragon. "There's a whole lot more to come. And I could really use the help." he added conclusively, gesturing to the pool of blood and crushed corpses behind her.

Her eyes lit up. Literally. More bodies for her to devourer? Count her in!

Naruto smiled with relief as the female, winged lizard nodded her head up and down rapidly. Fire dripped from her maw and onto the earth in large quantities.

"Alright. Follow me, girl." Naruto said, gesturing the double decker sized dragon to follow him as he walked passed her.

She did so obediently and gleefully.

The Keeper teleported beside Naruto and floated by his side as the young man made his way to the third and final converter with a dragon in tow.

X.X.X.X

"Huh. That's a sight you don't see every day." the cross armed spectre of Naruto 2 said to himself. He was staring down at the Namikaze, Keeper and dragon from the rooftop he is standing on.

It wasn't every day that you see someone team up with a mother-fucking dragon of all things! This never happened to him in any of the cycles he was previously in.

Then again he didn't have an otherworldly being capable of completely dominating the zombies by itself with him. And he didn't know of the summoning alters after he died. Maybe this cycle can be broken. Maybe the Namikaze can do what he could not and escape from this dimension. He was a little surprised the Keeper didn't notice him watch them though.

But, he wasn't complaining about it.

Sighing Naruto 2 teleported off the roof and reappeared on another one several times, keeping up with the small group.

X.X.X.X

As he walked through the streets of his ruined home Naruto gave the dragon a sideways glance. She was growling and hissing to herself. Her eyes were darting to her left and right searchingly for more unlucky bastards to devourer. The young man was glad he now had a dragon walking with him, she can take care of any unwanted guests. Like those frustrating, spam teleporting zombie yoma's that are still out there.

Then he turned his gaze to the Keeper. Naruto kept quiet for a moment, then he looked back at the she-dragon; it wasn't fair on him that she can understand him, and yet he is unable to understand her.

With that thought in mind, and wanting to resolve that problem before it became an annoyance, Naruto once more looked at the Keeper and asked, "Keeper, are you able to use the same method that lets me understand what you're saying so I would know what she's saying?" as the Keeper looked at him when he asked his question, Naruto pointed his thumb at the dragon in question.

Curious the she-dragon looked at the Keeper as well – it would be easier if other species are able to understand what she is saying. The Keeper hissed and held its palm out towards her... she went tense and... nothing happened?

"What ever it was trying to do, didn't work."

"I don't know about that." Naruto said to the she-dragon with a smile." I can understand you plenty."

She stopped walking and stared at him with her maw agape, fire drooling from her mouth and on to the floor in waves. "Y-you can understand me now?" her eyes grew wide in shock when he nodded in affirmation.

Stopping as well Naruto looked up at the dragon with a smile, "Makes it easier for us to talk don't you think?" he said.

The dragon nodded, "Yes!"

"Do you have a name?" he asked her because he wanted to call her by her name in case he got into trouble. Or to get her attention instead of saying 'she-dragon' or 'dragon'.

"No, I do not."

"Hmm... then how about 'Em'?"

"Em?"

"Yeah, it's short for Ember." because she's a fire dragon that has fire coming out of her mouth constantly.

"...I like them. Ember and Em. One shorter than the other." the now named Ember said.

The two of them continued on their way to their destination with Naruto pulling out the map to get a baring on where they are, and to make sure they don't take a wrong turn or get lost. After minutes of walking in the deserted streets and bypassing another blocked off route, they reached the final converter.

Naruto stepped onto the metal foundation with the she-dragon watching him with curiosity.

"Once I turn this on it's going to attract a lot of attention." Naruto said as he looked at Ember. "You'll see what I'm talking about in a moment."

As he turned back around he walked over to the control panel on the conversion machine and slammed his hand on the big, red button. The machine whirred to life and just like it happened the previous two times, in the distance were howls of a dozen or so zombies, maybe more.

"I wonder if those teleporting fuckers will come back...?" Naruto mused to himself aloud.

"Teleporting... whaters...?" Ember asked as she cocked her head to the side questioningly.

As if a higher being answered his question the remaining zombified yoma's teleported into their proximity. Their nails lengthened until they were four inches long with deadly sharp tips. They screamed out their hunger for man flesh and leapt at Naruto. They didn't care about the Keeper or the new addition – they were just focused on getting him.

Naruto responded by raising his FG-42 and taking aim at them through the iron sights. The Keeper who growled and hissed with annoyance at their reappearance, decided to get rid of them as quickly as possible. It did this by holding them all in place by raising its hand out in front of it.

Ember and Naruto took the opportunity to kill as many of them as they possibly could. Naruto by shooting them in the head, reducing the skull and brain matter to red mist. Ember who leapt over with a gaping maw and a loud roar and taking in one of the walking corpses into her mouth. She bit down, hard, and pulled.

The yoma who had four arms, was bisected by her teeth. The lower body spouted purple blood as it stood up for several moments before the Keeper released its hold on the lower body, allowing it to fall to the ground on its front.

She chewed, then swallowed, and went for another zombified yoma. As Naruto and Ember both picked the teleporting zombies off one by one, the Keeper wondered "why hadn't I done this the last time they shown themselves?" to himself, killing them would have been a whole lot easier to do if it had done just that.

Though some of the yoma's teleported away from Ember who was trying to snack on them they weren't able to do much else. They were open targets for Naruto's battle rifle too and with them being immobile, it was no surprise that they were dropping like flies. One or two tried to teleport to Naruto himself – to try and kill him obviously.

Naruto would avoid their extended nails that tried to skewer him... and that's it. They weren't able to do much else thanks to the Keeper.

As they were taking care of the remaining zombified yoma's with ridiculous ease, Naruto grunted in distress and stopped firing as he reached up to grasp the side of his head.

The One-fifteen induced illusions were acting up again.

X.X.X.X

 _Naruto Namikaze looked around his new found surroundings wildly and was alarmed at what he saw taking place. He quickly brought his weapon up to open fire – only to realise his FG-42 wasn't in his possession._

 _People were dying everywhere. Strange men in dark grey uniforms and white lab coats were trying to shoot and kill an overwhelming amount of zombies. And were failing badly. People were screaming in terror as they were caught by a zombie, or several, before getting ripped apart by them. An experience he had unfortunately experienced. More times than he can count._

 _There was a siren going off in the background. Though it was slightly drowned out by the screams and gun fire._

 _The Namikaze growled in distress as he covered his ears and closed his eyes tight. Why was he seeing this? What was the point of it?!_

 _He got his answer when he was in another location. The sounds of people screaming and soldiers shooting had dampened a little, causing him to open his eyes. He recoiled in surprise when he found an familiar face._

 _It was himself. He was wearing the same clothes as the one who rescued him. In the room was another familiar face, Tank Dempsey who wore an light green uniform with a black shirt underneath, along with two other people he didn't recognise._

 _They immediately banded together and pressed themselves up against the door when zombies began bashing themselves against it. Well Dempsey and the other two men were. The Naruto who rescued him was busy looking under one of the mattresses under one of the four beds in the room, and pulled out four combat knifes from beneath it._

 _The other Naruto stood up and turned halfway to look at the others who were trying, and failing to keep the door closed. The Namikaze watched as his other self turned around and made his way to the struggling men._

" _Takeo, Nikolai, Dempsey." He called to them, prompting the three men to look back at him, and shocking Namikaze since he saw what two other members of Primis looks like now. The other Naruto held the combat knives out to them, hilt first._

" _Take this, they'll make killing those fuckers easier." he told then._

" _Where'd you get those?" Dempsey asked, astonishment on his face as he, Nikolai and Takeo took the knives._

 _Namikaze listened as his other self replied, "Stole them. They do tend to forget with dead people trying to bite your own head off."_

 _Namikaze looked at Dempsey who asked, "Just so we're clear on this: does anyone know how to kill something that is already dead?"_

 _He heard the kerchief wearing man answer in a strange accent, "I have seen Germans shoot hell spawn in head. Maybe we stab them there they will die for good, no?" if the Namikaze didn't know any better, it sounded as if Nikolai was drunk off his ass._

 _The man with a moustache added on to Nikolai's observation, "That is something I too have seen from these, disgracefur peopre." He bared his teeth in frustration as his feet dragged against the floor. "When I get out of here I wirr send these herr demons back from wince they came!"_

" _And I'll help!" his other self exclaimed as he joined in with them on keeping the door closed. "And as for me knowing how to kill them? Yes. I know how to put them down. Shooting or stabbing them in the head seems to do the trick."_

 _The four tensed up and held their breath when they heard gunfire close by. The zombies on the other side of their door stopping banging against it and heard their footsteps as they left. The zombies stumbled away; at the same time the gunfire got closer and closer before it cut off abruptly. The gunfire shortly started up again followed by the deathly wails of the undead shortly after._

 _The group of four shared a look with one another, then cautiously opened the door enough for one to peek outside. When the coast was clear the door opened completely. The man in the moustache and cap cautiously leaned his head out of the doorway and looked in both directions._

" _You see anything?" Dempsey whispered._

" _The path is crear." he man replied stoically. "This is our chance to arm ourserves against these demons." With that said and done he beckoned the others to follow him as he cautiously moved out of the room and into the corridor._

" _Fucking hell..."_

 _Naruto wasn't able to learn anything else as he had begun to fade out of the memory._

X.X.X.X

When he came too Naruto inhaled sharply as he surveyed his surroundings. The blonde found himself sitting on the metal foundation, his back pressed up against the conversion machine. His FG-42 was laying flat on the foundation beside him.

The Keeper and Ember were finishing up the zombies. The teleporting yoma having been reduced to messy limbs and squished corpses.

Naruto brought his hand to the side of his head as he frowned in distraught. Just... what the hell was that?

First that memory of a much younger alternate version of himself, and now he saw a memory belonging to that Naruto who rescued him weeks...? no, months...? No. Not months. Seven years had passed – plus the thirty or so times he had died here and had to go back to the beginning each time, that is close to forty years or over. Or something of the sort.

No! Don't get distracted – you saw a memory of the Naruto that rescue years ago from that shadowy organization. And he apparently knew Primis. Or at least three of them. But that begs the question: what happened to the fourth?

He pushed those thoughts aside. The conversion machine is just about done powering up – and Ember and Keeper both noticed he was aware of his surroundings.

His eyes lost focus once more as he was brought back into another illusion...

X.X.X.X

 _Naruto saw his alternate self being instructed on how to fire a gun. An M1911 Colt. to be exact. The man mentoring him on how to use said side arm, is Tank Dempsey._

" _Don't hold your arms out straight kid. The recoil will mess with your wrists and elbows otherwise" instructed the man, who then added, "Bend your arms slightly so the recoil can be absorbed."_

 _Naruto watched his alternate self follow the instructions provided to him to a T._

 _The former Marine Raider gave out some more pointers to his alternate self._

 _Meanwhile, he, Naruto began to fade out of the memory again..._

X.X.X.X

...and found himself being carried by the frantically moving Keeper. Or to be more accurate, he was floating off ground beside the Keeper.

Grunting with a small grimace, Naruto squinted as he groggily tried to figure out where he is in terms of location. Buildings that were barely standing, some were rubble and more. Everything looked the same to him. He... didn't know where he was.

He then heard a sound that sent shivers down his spine. Naruto closed one eye and dazedly looked over his shoulder. What he saw made him want to curse like a sailor.

A tank solider. A zombie that was covered in had to toe in bulky, thick iron armour. A built in flame-thrower on the left, and a large claw on the right. It has a rocket pack on their back and smaller rocket thrusters on the back of their boots. And it has a highly visible bright light on the head of the suit.

It was flying after them.

The tank soldier had one weakness; only one: the light.

You destroy that and the reinforced glass would drop open, exposing the decaying head behind it.

"Keeper," Naruto murmured as he pulled his down shemagh scarf, "what the hell is going on?"

" **Trouble!" barked the Keeper, "You're blacking out; it is a side effect of One-fifteen."**

"But I'm...seeing another...me...?" he said; his voice was so it was almost like a whisper. "It's like seeing through the eyes of another person...?" It didn't get any more confusing than that in his opinion. Seeing what another version of yourself was doing and what he was going through.

" **They are you. And you are them."** the Keeper calmly answered, even though they are being chased by a highly armoured zombie. **"There is little difference between you and the other Naruto's, just the choices and circumstances they were in."**

"What about Ember? Why isn't she getting the Tank Soldier of our backs?" he asked.

" **Look up."** instructed the Keeper.

"What?"

" **Look. Up."** it repeated it's previous words, punctuated for emphasis.

Blinking Naruto did what the Keeper instructed, and he saw the she-dragon high in the sky flying circles around several flying figures. While lashing her tail, fore and hind-legs at them whenever they got close to her. They looked familiar, bulky even.

Oh.

Ember, is taking care of several Tank Soldiers at the same time.

That explained a lot.

Taking a deep breath, Naruto looked around to get his bearings – and this time, he recognised where he was. They're near his safe heaven.

Naruto let out a started cry when the tank soldier's extendible claw clamped around waist tightly. The Keeper looked over its shoulder, startled and almost cursed when the claw yanked Naruto back towards it.

He wasn't entirely helpless though – with his eyes glinting with determination and a fierce scowl Naruto grabbed his FG-42 raised it to his hip and opened fire on the arm the claw is attached to. He hoped that by shooting it enough, the claw would be forced to unclasp him and let go.

It worked. The bullets hit the arm enough for the claw to let him go. Naruto grunted as he rolled across the ground. He leaned his head back and grit his teeth as the tank solider sailed over him. He groaned with discomfort from the heat emitting from the thrusters.

Growling Naruto pushed himself up to one knee, and at the same time he pulled his shemagh scarf, which had fallen down sometime during the chase, back up so it was covering the bottom half of his face again.

The tank soldier turned around and the second he saw the bright light on top of its head, Naruto aimed his German made battle rifle at it and pulled the trigger.

It roared as the bullets struck the light and after the bullets hit it, again and again and again it broke and the protective glass fell to the ground exposing the head of the zombie behind it. The zombie controlling the tank solder let out another roar, and ran with its flame-thrower pointing at him.

Fire shot out of the flame-thrower, threatening to envelop Naruto in its heat and burn him away. Naruto however was quick on his feet and he ran, putting a distance between him and the fire being launched at him.

The Keeper wasn't idle. The second it saw Naruto running from the fire it teleported beside the blonde; he ran past the Keeper, who floated after him.

The otherworldly being threw its arm out, with electricity shooting from its limb. It struck true. And the zombie roared as it the lightning struck, making the zombie stumble back from the impact. It didn't impede the zombie forever though. It recovered and continued its chase anew.

Naruto meanwhile was back at the blocked entrance of his safe house. He pulled open the container open as wide as he possibly could and slipped inside.

The Keeper teleported inside with him, but didn't have enough time to get a look around because Naruto was already on the move. The MTD was powered up and both tubes were filled with a blue fluid that was glowing. Naruto ran over to the computer hooked up to it and racked his brain on how to get it to work.

"C'mon, c'mon, how do I work this thing? I'm so close...!" he ranted while frantically looking at the buttons.

Before the Keeper could add any input, both it and Naruto looked towards the container when the tank Solder slammed itself against it. The force behind the impact had slightly pushed the container away, but held.

"Shit!" in a panic Naruto turned to the controls and started pressing random buttons and hoped for the best. All he wanted was to get out of here! And something told him if he were to die this time around, it would be a permanent thing! No resets.

Lucky for him, he got help in the form of the spectral Naruto who without the Namikaze knowing took brief control of his arms and made him press the right buttons. He was dead but the Namikaze wasn't. Might as well help him out so he won't share his fate.

While that was happening the tank soldier was slowly pushing the container away. A loud screech echoed through the room as metal dragged across ground.

With the final button pressed the MTD let out a noise, letting everyone know it was ready for use. It also served to frenzied the tank soldier, causing it to push its bulky armoured suit against the container with its thrusters on full blast.

Naruto Namikaze, the spectre Naruto, and the Keeper ran into the MTD and slammed the button to turn it on causing his vision to be filled with a bright light; at the same time the tank solder managed to shove the container out of the way, and it flew towards the active teleporter.

The interior of the was enveloped by a bright light with sparks of electricity shooting off it. Teleporting the two Naruto's and Keeper out of this dimension – the tank soldier managed to enter the light just before it faded away.

X.X.X.X

High above the remains of Konoha was Ember, fighting the other tank solders. Many of them were falling like flies. When she got her teeth on them, she would pull – ripping the metal suits to large chunky and dented pieces. If they got far she was roast them with her fire. If they tried to blitz her, she would return the favour.

She was about to roast another of the metal things when all of them just upped and vanished. Bewildered, Ember stopped flying and looked around to see where they had gone. They just...disappeared.

Ember looked down and saw the zombies had vanished too. Huffing she flew down to the surface and went to find Naruto and his companion in the last place she saw them head too. The safe house.

She would come to realise the zombies had left, because Naruto and the Keeper had left. And now she no longer had anything to make her stay, Ember left the dimension through the same method she used to enter. Her glyph.

But it won't be the last time she would see them however.


	12. Chapter 12

Primis

Chapter 11

 _7 years after Naruto Namikaze's disappearance..._

Rabona is a large bustling city, with tall walls made of brick and concrete towering over the buildings. It has a population of over nine thousand people, three thousand being soldiers and guards, with a smaller portion being silver eyed women who are living amongst the populace.

Within one of the barracks was Cynthia, training a small detachment of guards.

"That's it." praised the plaited haired woman. She observed them attack the dummies that were in the shape of yoma, striking their weak points like a well oiled machine. "By striking their necks you are removing one of their most vital areas. However, this does not mean you are in any way ready to face one." she said, but not unkindly.

A broad and muscular guard stopped hitting at the dummy and turned to ask her, "Because they have many abilities that makes them dangerous?"

Cynthia nodded with a pleased smile, "Precisely. Some have wings, allowing them to fly and avoid your swords, halberds and spears. That is why you have those who use ranged weaponry. Others are able to stretch their limbs and so on. Although..." she trailed off.

"Hmm?"

"Two friends of mine, Helen and Deneve, encountered a new type of yoma." Cynthia revealed, "One they had a bit of trouble with. Apparently, it was a walking corpse that could appear and disappear at will."

Many guards stopped what they were doing at this point, and gave the plaited woman looks of disbelief and disturbance, "Walking corpse?"

"Their words not mine." Cynthia shrugged, "I never saw one myself." but she did see a lot of walking corpses before. Not that she'd ever tell them that though.

"What are the chances we'll see one?" asked another guard in training.

Cynthia shrugged and said in a so-so tone, "The one Helen and Deneve encountered was killed seven years ago, and neither they or myself encountered another one since. The chance is very unlikely."

"I wouldn't say that." hearing the voice she had not heard from in seven years, caused Cynthia to quickly turn around in astonishment.

"...Naruto?" a shocked Cynthia said with her silver eyes growing wide.

Everyone was shocked. But none more so than Cynthia who was staring at Naruto. However, he was a lot different than she remembered him.

For one he was transparent, like 'Tank' Dempsey, and had slightly shorter but just as spiky hair and had dimmer blue eyes. His clothes were different as well. They were made up of a pair of black baggy tracksuit bottoms, a light grey hoodie, a light grey jacket made of the same material as the jumper. And on his feet was a pair of black trainers.

"Not exactly." he said with a head shake, "I am Naruto, but not the one you're familiar with. He is on his way so you'd better get ready for the...company he's going to bring."

"He's coming back?" Cynthia said as filed away what she had learned to the back of her head. "Do you know when? Is it going to be today? Tomorrow?"

The spectre Naruto shook his head. "Unfortunately, it's not that easy to pinpoint when he will arrive. But he is coming, I guarantee it." he looked to the side, in the distance, and then he looked back at the woman and said conclusively, "If you know anyone that knows the other Naruto here, tell them. You will see me again in the future."

With nothing else to say, the ghost was gone.

Cynthia quickly looked around the room to find him, but found no one but freaked out young and middle aged men.

"Uh...everyone is dismissed." she told them, before marching out of the room as if her life depends on it.

"...Who, was that boy?" a random guard-in-training asked.

"No idea..."

X.X.X.X

Yuma was talking and walking with Galatea, a beautiful woman with straight long hair who was once a warrior like herself. She had self inflicted a wound to blind her own eyes and kept herself from healing them in order disguise herself as a nun after deserting the organization. And when Cynthia came along, looking shocked and as if she had seen a ghost, both blondes stopped what they were doing and looked at the plaided girl.

"Cynthia? Is something wrong?" Yuma asked.

"It's him, Yuma. He's coming back." Cynthia calmly answered, in spite of the urgency in her voice.

"Him...?" Yuma creased her brow in thought – it didn't take that long for her to realise what her friend was implying. The young woman grew wide eyed once the dots were connected. "You saw him? When?!"

"It was him, but not the one we know. But it's him nonetheless."

"That... doesn't make a whole lot of sense."

"I know. But you have to trust me when I say he is coming back."

"I'm confused... who are you two talking about?" Galatea voiced her confusion; then she looked at Cynthia directly, "Who is this person that has you so excited Cynthia?"

Cynthia shaked her head, "Not here." she then looked to Yuma and said, "Go get the others that are still here and bring them to the meeting point. Tell them its urgent and they can't miss it."

Yuma nodded frantically and ran off to get those still in Rabona. Cynthia and Galatea on the other hand were still in the street, with the latter giving the plaited woman a curious look.

"C'mon, Galatea. You're practically one of us, so you should be in the know too." and with that Cynthia walked to her destination, and Galatea who is still curious as to who this unnamed man is followed her.

Cynthia already found a few people prior to walking into them. And now that she has another person helping her out, Cynthia feels she can set up the meeting point.

X.X.X.X

Cynthia and Galatea were in a tavern, sitting around a long rectangular table at the end of the room as they waited for the others to arrive. Cynthia was rhythmically tapping her fingers on the table while Galatea looked around, patiently waiting for the others to arrive.

30 minutes later, a handful of women entered the tavern and made their way to the table Cynthia and Galatea were at. Miria, Yuma, Flora, Eliza and Veronica.

Miria and Yuma were still in their uniforms from when they were part of the organization. Eliza and Veronica however, are garbed in civilian clothing, because they wanted to live a normal life. But because Eliza and Veronica were two of the 24 people that got out of Pieta alive thanks to Naruto, Yuma decided they had to be included as well.

Miria ever the serious one, got straight to the point as she and the other gathered women sat down. "What is the news you have that's so important Cynthia?"

Since Miria got straight to the point, Cynthia decided to get straight to the point too. And so she dropped a bomb on them. "Naruto's coming back."

Excluding Yuma – who already knew – and Galatea – who had no idea who Naruto was - those three words had shook them to the core. Being the first of them to recover Miria immediately asked the first, prominent question that entered her thoughts.

"How do you know he's coming back? We waited for seven years and never got a word. Not even a peep."

"Because I told her he was coming back."

Everyone snapped her heads in the direction the voice came from and found Naruto, see-through and all, sitting at the end of the table with his trainers resting on top. Cynthia was a little surprised to see him again, but not as much, she had already seen him before.

But the others that knew him... they were more than surprised to see his face for the first time in seven years. Galatea on the other hand couldn't see him – she was blind after all and Naruto didn't have any yoki in him.

"Naruto?" Miria said as her eyes slowly grew wide.

"He's not the Naruto we know." Cynthia pointed out to the woman.

"Glad you remembered that." Naruto said.

"Please. It was barely an hour ago." Cynthia playfully retorted.

Veronica looked around to see if anyone was looking their way. Thankfully, there was barely anyone around, and no one seemed to notice there was a ghost among them. Satisfied the pig-tailed woman looked at the ghost, "If you're not the Naruto we know, then who the hell are you?" she asked him.

Naruto looked at Veronica and gave her a straight answer.

"I'm the Naruto who fought side by side with 'Tank' Dempsey a long time ago." that got wide eyes from nearly everyone, excluding those who didn't recognise the name.

"That's a name I haven't heard of in a long time." Miria said. "What happened to you?"

He waved her question aside instead of answering it. "We're not here to talk about me. We're here to talk about the other Naruto. Your Naruto." the ghost reminded.

Cynthia nodded affirmatively, "Right. You said he was coming back, but didn't elaborate on when."

"That's because I don't exactly know. For fucks sake, the reason I'm here and he's not, is because I'm dead. Your Naruto is still alive – and for some fucking reason it's taking him longer to get here."

Ignoring his crass language, since she had been told by Dempsey that he likes to swear a lot., she asked, "When he disappeared nearly a decade ago, where did he go?" that was one of the biggest questions she and the others were seeking an answer too.

Kicking his feet off the table the ghost sat correctly and looked at the women with an expression of utter seriousness. "He got sent to a dimension that is directly parallel to this one. But with many differences."

Curious the hybrids all exchanged looks before giving the ghost their attention again.

"Different? How so?" Flora asked.

Naruto sighed and raised a finger, "Well for one everything in that fucking, inane dimension is destroyed." another finger, "Everything is in ruins and as far as I know, there's no survivors." a third finger, "And if you die, then almost everything is reset to the first time you arrived there. Depending how long you lived for, you either remember everything up to your death, or you forget about everything you did there."

"You die... and everything is reset? If that's the case, then how did you die?" Eliza questioned the ghost.

"I got close to getting out. And when I got overwhelmed by the living dead I died for real." Naruto told them as if he was talking about the weather.

"Naruto," said person looked at the person that spoke, Flora. "how many times did the one we know... die?"

"In total? Twenty-eight."

"Twenty-eight?!" they were so shocked by this reveal, that Cynthia, Miria, Yuma, Flora, Eliza and Veronica nearly yelled.

"Yeah. So don't be surprised if he's jumpy, and not all there when you see him again."

The hybrids exchanged looks once more, before they looked back at the ghost.

"So, when can we roughly expect his arrival?" questioned Eliza.

Naruto hummed thoughtfully, as he slowly rubbed his chin. "We both left at the same time; and it took me a day or two to get here." he said, though it was more to himself than them. "Taking that into account, he should be here shortly. If not, then, he may be delayed by another day or two..." he pushed his current thoughts aside and looked at the woman who questioned him, "I hope that answered it."

Eliza and the others nodded with some degree of satisfaction; then Cynthia remembered what he said just some time before he left the first time around. "You said Naruto was going to bring company. What did you mean by that?" she asked.

"Why the Keeper of course." he answered her with a wide smirk. Suddenly he looked to his right and gazed off in the distance. "...I gotta go now. You will see him soon." and with that he gave them a two fingered wave and simply faded away.

There was a tolerable silence in the room.

"...Who's 'Tank' Dempsey?" Galatea eventually asked and effectively breaking the silence.

"He was once a member of Primis. The Naruto we were talking to is from the Old World." THAT had gotten the nun's attention. She's heard of Primis, and what they sacrificed to ensure the survival of humanity."

"Hmm... I see." and with that Galatea slowly raised from her chair. "In that case we should prepare for his eventual arrival should we not?"

Miria, Yuma, Cynthia, Flora, Eliza and Veronica got up from their chairs too, with Miria nodding in confirmation. With them saying goodbyes to each other they all went out of the tavern and went their separate ways.

X.X.X.X

The MTD whirring as it activated; a bright light; cackling electricity; the sound of screeching metal and thrusters; and then the feeling of being tackled by something solid and cold. That was the last thing Naruto Namikaze felt just before he was teleported by the MTD with the Keeper in tow.

Then he found himself seeing glimmering lights; a sight he had become familiar with during the beginning of a new cycles. He saw pictures of people and places he didn't know, and didn't see, and of people he did know and did see.

Being stuck in that messed up world that was so similar to his own, Naruto slowly began to forget a few things. Being killed and revived and killed again in a constant cycle, as well as forgetting and remembering what you said before you died really took its toll on him.

He remembered being angry; but what he was angry at... eluded him.

Then another bright light blinded his sight not a moment later, and he was made all too aware of gravity taking hold. He let out pained grunts as he bounced across the hard surface of the earth, along with the surprised yelps and screams of the people around him, before going the rest of the way in a rolling slide.

The blond came to stop lying on his back with a pained groan; he hurt, everywhere.

His FG-42 slid to a stop at the heels of his boots.

"Agh...!" the blond made aware of the throbbing pain in his chest, that hit him like a ton of bricks.

Christ! It felt he had been bashed in the chest with a metal pipe! Following that was throbbing pain in his skull, like his brain was being pushed through a pipe too small for it to go through.

Then he remembered...

He died thAT MANY TIMES IN THAT FUCKING PLACE?!

And he remembered every detail leading up to his many deaths, and he didn't know what was worse: being ripped apart limb from limb, or getting your skull crushed by the foot of a tank solider.

Gritting his teeth Naruto pushed past the pain raging through his body and slowly sat up to look in the direction he came from. His FG-42 was lying in front of him; beyond that there was a large white, floating sphere that was growing bigger by the second. Groaning with a grimace the blond grabbed his battle rifle and gave it a quick check over, even unloading the magazine and ejecting the bullet in the chamber to see if it was jammed or not.

Once he was assured the hand-held machine gun was did not have any defects in it, Naruto slid the magazine back in its slot and locked it in place; then he got the hell up with another pained groan and looked at it with squinting eyes.

Okay; the Tank Solider obviously got to him; and the MTD brought him to this... medieval city. Naruto took a brief glance at his surroundings and found a few women had silver eyes and pale-blond, or just silver hair; didn't recognise any of them though. And the looks they were giving him and the continuously growing sphere didn't bode well either.

Sighing Naruto looked back at the sphere and got ready to open fire.

Then when that familiar heavily armoured zombie, flew out of the sphere with a roar, its claw-arm held up clamping in a threatening way, Naruto immediately opened fire on it. The bullets harmlessly rebounded off the surface.

Naruto rolled to the side, evading the armoured zombie's flying tackle, and quickly got back up to a knee and looked over his shoulder in time to see the zombie, effortlessly smash through the wall of a building.

Luckily no one was caught in its claw. The blond didn't want to know what would happen to the unlucky bastard caught in it. The armoured suit turned around, its metal feet thudding loudly with every step, and then the zombie within roared at him as the armoured suit walked out of the building through the hole it made.

Naruto had a feeling the zombie was trying to talk smack at him. Key word: trying.

The blond scowled and yelled as he stood up and taking aim, "Come get me!" he bellowed in challenge.

The armoured zombie stomped the ground, making a spider crack around the impact, and activated its thrusters. Naruto opened fire as the armoured zombie threw at him, its claw arm lifted up in front of it, and like the last time the bullets rebounded off the metal surface. Naruto rolled out of its trajectory and got up on his feet as he turned around, in time to see the the zombie crash through another stone wall.

Meanwhile the silver eyed women were finally about to take action as pulled out their claymore swords from one of the two slots on the back of their spaulders.

"What the hell is that thing?!" one of the silver eyed women cried out.

Without taking his eyes off the tank soldier that was emerging from the hole, Naruto answered. "A living dead."

"What the hell is 'a living dead'?!" another silver eyed woman asked demandingly.

The tank solder roared to the sky as Naruto answered, "Lady, you're looking at one!"

Then it activated its thrusters and flew at Naruto once more. The hybrids quickly got out of the way while said blond moved to the left in order to avoid the claw that tired to swipe grab him. He watched as the tank solider adjusted its momentum before coming to a stop in front of the hole it already caused, turning around to glare at the Namikaze with its empty yellow eyes.

It was getting smarter.

The tank soldier ran at him this time instead of activating its thrusters. Now that it wasn't moving too fast for him to shoot Naruto took aim. He was about to pull the trigger when a few of the silver eyes women ran at it, swords drawn. They hacked and slashed at it only for their swords to ricocheted off the metal surface.

The tank soldier retaliated by swiping at them with its claw arm, and managed to hit one in the stomach and throwing her off her feet. The others pulled back immediately, just in time too as the tank solider turned to meet them with its flame-throwing arm pointed at them.

They let out a startled yelp as fire shot out of the barrel. The heat of the flame made them sweat. Thankfully they were far enough away to not get caught in the fire.

With the tank soldier distracted another group of silver eyed women struck. To Naruto they were a blur, they appeared around the tank soldiers flanks and slashed at It with a greater amount of force being put into it. Naruto saw one or two of them had gold-like eyed with slanted, feline like pupils – and they managed to cut into the armoured suit.

Another tried to run her sword through the zombie's head. But the zombie managed to dodge before it happened.

But despite this, it didn't do anything to deter the heavily armoured zombie. They quickly pulled away with their swords as the armoured zombie turned to them with a stream of fire being shot from its flame-thrower.

The tank soldier roared in anger from their hit and run tactics. Clamping and unclasping its claw it raised its claw-arm at one of the hybrids and to the shock of everyone except Naruto, the claw shot out and clamped around an unlucky hybrid who was too slow to react and get out of its trajectory.

"Gah!" she cried out and was forced to drop her claymore to the ground. She struggled even as she was pulled to the zombie.

Luckily for her Naruto took action. The while they were distracting the tank solider, while inadvertently being a nuisance for him, the blond repositioned himself. So when the claw managed to grab on to one of the hybrids, Naruto was in a position to interfere.

So he did and shot the claw arm.

The bullets struck home, and the tank solider roared as its claw was forced to let go of its victim. Said woman quickly got the hell out of there, shaken but otherwise unhurt.

With the tank soldier now focusing on him Naruto beckoned it tauntingly. It yelled and ran to him. Exhaling the blond started to lead it around in a circle while making sure the zombie wasn't anywhere near the bystanders and hybrids. All the while he calmly changed the magazine in his FG-42 for a fresh one.

After that was done, the blond turned and faced the zombie, kept running – but backwards – as he took aim at the exposed face and opened fire.

That was the scene Miria, Cynthia and Yuma came too when they arrived with a small detachment of soldiers and fellow hybrids.

"What the...?" A bewildered Miria started; she grew wide eyed in recognition when she saw Naruto. An expression copied by Cynthia and Yuma.

"Naruto...?" said an equally bewildered Cynthia.

Miria watched the other hybrids leapt in and struck the thick, metal suit when ever they got an opening. The light haired brunette narrowed her silver eyes analytically, seeing how the claymores harmlessly bounced off the surface for some, and for others they barely managed to cut into it.

The suit itself had to be made of some of the strongest metal for it to be that resistant and dense. Miria guessed it had to be made entirely out of steel, or some sort of other metal like titanium or tungsten. It's more likely to be steel; and given how rare it is to find titanium it's unlikely to be that metal; and it's even more unlikely to be tungsten because of how its made.

All were viable options though.

The hybrids got out of there as the tank solider retaliated; turning and shooting them with its flame-thrower. Naruto got its attention back on him again by shooting at it.

When the tank soldier was facing him completely, Naruto unloaded the entire magazine onto the exposed face. The face was reduced to a red mist and the entire suit locked up before falling down on its back. Then the suit exploded a moment later, utterly ruining it from the inside out.

Pointedly ignoring the stares he was getting Naruto reloaded his battle worn FG-42 and walked over to the carcass, battle rifled and ready to shoot if it so much as twitched. Once he was sure it was well and truly dead, the blond exhaled and allowed his FG-42 to hang by his waist.

He rubbed the bridge of his nose and sighed with exhaustion. "Finally. God that was longer than it needed to be." he said with tiredness in his voice.

"Naruto...?"

He turned to the person that said his name with wide eyes; he was overcome with surprise when he saw three familiar faces he had not seen in ages, walking over to him with wide eyes.

"Miria, Cynthia, Yuma, you three haven't changed. You still look the same." he said with a tired chortle.

"The same can be said for you." Cynthia pointed out; and it was true, except for the blood splattered clothes and the bags under his eyes, he still looked as she remembered. "You look like you've been through hell."

He let out an empty chuckle. "Fighting these things non-stop, with little time to rest, for what felt like an eternity would certainly do that." he said, while gesturing to the carcass of the tank soldier beside him.

"I'd say," Miria said as she gave him a quick look over. "You certainly look... different?"

Naruto chuckled and gave her a smile, "I'll take that as a compliment."

"Miria?" said woman turned to the person who spoke, a fellow hybrid she knows by the name of Nina. "Who is he?" she asked, giving Naruto a look of deep distrust.

"A friend of ours." Miria replied.

"Miria," said woman looked at Naruto who then asked, "What did I miss while I was gone? Can you catch me up?"

Miria nodded and gestured for him to follow her; at the same time she dismissed the small contingent of soldiers she, Cynthia and Yuma had brought with them. So he did and followed her, Cynthia and Yuma with the other silver eyed women following out of curiosity.

X.X.X.X

Some time later...

Inside of an Inn, surrounded by silver eyed women and curious civilians and soldiers, sat Naruto. He listened to Miria regaling everything that had happened in short order and the blond realised he had missed out on a LOT of things.

The organization for one, was destroyed, their soldiers – the women with silver eyes and pale blonde, silver and brown hair around him – had rebelled, with the leaders being killed systematically when their headquarters was overrun. The Pieta survivors of twenty-four had been reduced to eleven, many of them having been killed by some girl called Priscilla.

The survivors were obviously, Miria, Cynthia and Yuma. The rest were Veronica, Eliza and Flora, Clare, Helen and Deneve, Tabitha and Jean.

But they are elsewhere; most returning to their home towns and villages, and others were either continuing the fight against the monsters. Flora, Eliza and Veronica however, were in Rabona and was either helping in repairing the damages his battle with the tank soldier had made, or they were busy training the soldiers of the holy city.

Oh, and apparently, the organization was responsible for all the misery and death that plagued this continent. They were the ones that made said monsters by kidnapping homeless boys over the years and infecting them with a parasite.

After being caught up with the events Naruto let out a low whistle.

"Jeez. I missed out on a lot of things haven't I?"

"That is an understatement." Miria answered with a tiny smirk; then she asked, "So what are you going to do now?"

"I still have to find a way home," he answered, then after a moment of thought added, "And wait for the Keeper to show up. And maybe Ember too."

"Ember? Who's that?" Cynthia questioned with a curious look on her face; Miria and Yuma were curious as well because the spectre Naruto said there was no one else alive where the blond before them ended up.

"Ember's a dragon." he told them, and had to stop himself from laughing at the stupefied looks on their faces.

"...You're not pulling our leg, are you?" a still disbelieving Miria asked him.

"Nope. Ember is a fire breathing, zombie eating dragon." he cheerfully clarified for them, and took a great amount of enjoyment in their reaction. Then he saw something from the corner of his eye, and when he looked at it, he smiled. "Looks like she's on her way. Not smart of her to show up in the tavern though."

As one everyone looked where he's looking and before their very eyes, they were astonished to see a glyph on the wall. Then it started glowing. Getting up from his chair Naruto casually strolled over to the glyph.

Then everyone, except Naruto, screamed in surprise when Ember's head emerged from the glyph. Said dragon blinked in bewilderment at finding herself in the inside of a building. Then she looked down and saw...

"Naruto!"

"Hi Ember. Nice to see you again."

Ember leaned down so she was eye level with her human friend. "Where did you go? When those metal things disappeared I looked for you and the Keeper, but you were gone!"

"Sorry about vanishing on you like that, Ember. But the tank soldier was on our asses. Not to mention you were dealing with them yourself."

While Naruto and Ember were chatting, everyone was staring at the former, many of them were wondering how the hell he can understand what it's saying, when all they could hear from her maw was growls.

Miria, Yuma and Cynthia correctly assumed Naruto being able to understand what the she-dragon was saying had something to do with the Keeper.

"Really? That's worrying." a pause, "What are the chances they're gonna show up here?"

They watched as the she-dragon nodded in agreement before it let out a series of growls again.

"...That high of a chance huh?" Naruto looked back at his eavesdroppers, frowned slightly upon seeing them listen intently to the one-sided conversation, then back at Ember. "Alright. Ember, I want you to have a look around on this continent. Come and get me the second you find evidence of their presence here."

The dragon nodded and with pulled back into the glyph. Naruto pinched the bridge of his nose as he let out a stress-filled groan.

"...Naruto, what is going on?" a cautious Cynthia asked as she slowly walked over to him.

He didn't answer for a long while, it wasn't until the blond felt Cynthia's hand on his shoulder that he finally looked at her. Cynthia saw the grim look on his face and knew what ever that dragon told him wasn't good.

"There is a potential problem," he said; then his lips went to a thin line. "Remember that armoured suit I was fighting?" when Cynthia nodded in affirmation, "Well there were more of them. A lot more. Long story short when I left that place, they left too. And since I came here..."

An alarmed Miria picked up on where he left off. "They may have gotten here too."

His affirmed nod made everyone in the room talk amongst themselves in fear.

They saw how dense and thick the metal on that thing was. If there is a possibility that more of them will come... there's going to be a lot of causalities on their side before they manage to defeat one. The hybrids however were a little more optimistic and with good reason. Because of they are, the women can take a lot of punishment before they expire.

"They're from the Old World, aren't they?" questioned Yuma.

"Yeah. They are." Naruto growled in the back of his throat as a series of images came to the forefront of his mind. Of one thousand foot tall, metal men...

Oh great, there were bigger ones?!

"Naruto...? Are you... alright?" Cynthia hesitantly asked; said blond was twitching erratically. It would have been funny if she wasn't aware of the suffering and deaths he had gone through in that other dimension.

It looks like the ghosts warning of him not being 'all there' was well warranted.

"Peachy. I'm... peachy." after growling a little more audibly, Naruto shook his head and forced himself to calm down. There was no need to have a mental break down or something. The likelihood of a one thousand foot tall metal man appearing in this era is abysmal. And even if they did find one, they didn't have the technology and knowledge to fix it.

"So...how tough are those things?" one of the silver eyed women asked, which made Naruto look at her as if she had asked a pretty dumb question. Then she blushed when realising her question was pretty dumb.

She was one of the people who saw the thing in action after all.

"Right. Dumb question..." the same woman said.

"Is there anything we should expect?" another one asked.

"Yeah, there is. Margwa." Miria, Yuma and Cynthia made a face. They remembered that thing; it's kind of hard to forget an eldritch abomination like that. "Imagine an abomination with three heads that are nothing more than teeth and spiked tentacles for arms. Oh and they're completely invulnerable save for their weak point: their mouths."

"I never saw one of those since Pieta." said Miria.

"Neither did I to be honest..." Naruto admitted.

"What about the walking dead?"

"You don't need to worry about them... unless..." he trailed off.

"Unless?" another silver eyed woman prompted, someone Miria recognised as Nike.

"Well a couple of them are able to teleport. I fought a few myself. Although one always stood out, due to how completely annoying and fucking unfair they are. Fucking. Teleporting. Spammers!"

Miria frowned in thought. There was only one undead she knows of, but never had to opportunity to combat one. "...the undead yoma correct?"

"Yeah."

"A zombie yoma?" Nike shouted, looking as if the mere idea of an undead teleporting yoma is ludicrous. "There's no way they exist!"

"Helen and Deneve, if they were here, would beg to differ." Naruto replied coolly.

"That's right. They did fight one when you first met them." Miria said; this had gotten surprised looks from the other hybrids and soldiers.

"Excuse me, but how come we weren't informed of there being a new type of yoma?" asked woman with very long, princess-styled curly hair. Miria knew this woman as Anastasia.

"Because we had other things on mind at the time. Like taking down the organization." Miria replied, while also reminding them of the organizations treachery.

"Is there anything else we should be on the lookout for?" Anastasia asked; directing the question to Naruto because he had the most knowledge of this enemy.

"Destroy any rocks that are glowing orange with impunity." A random thing to say, but Miria, Yuma and Cynthia understood. They were told the same thing by 'Tank' Dempsey himself all those years ago.

And they did destroy one a long time ago. No one knew about said rock though, but it was near the town Helen and Deneve first ran into Naruto. Thankfully, it was far enough away it didn't cause anyone to get sick or reanimate the dead.

"Right. Those rocks can bring the dead back to life..." said a nodding Miria.

"They can also wipe your memory, if you're not careful." he helpfully added. "I still haven't recovered from that incident."

"Which one?" Yuma questioned, "The one where you were having an identity crisis, or the one where you lost nearly a decades worth of memories?"

"Both. I still am having an identity crisis actually. Shortly before I came here, I was remembering things that I KNOW I didn't see; places I wasn't at; people I don't know."

Then the Keeper appeared beside Naruto from a sphere of electricity. It's sudden appearance surprised everyone - except Naruto, Miria, Yuma and Cynthia – and they reached for their weapon. It was Miria who held up her hand, in the universal gesture to stop, that kept them from doing do.

"Well you sure took your time, Keeper." Naruto calmly said as he sedately looked at the other-worldly being. "What kept you?"

" **I was searching for some people."**

"Really? Who?"

" **Helen and Deneve. Along with a few others from Pieta."**

Excluding Miria, Cynthia and Yuma everyone who was listening in was frustrated by the one-sided discussion. It was just like the conversation with the dragon. One sided and frustrating.

Miria saw this and after informing them that Cynthia, Yuma and herself are able to understand the Keeper, offered to translate what the what the other worldly being is saying. They accepted her offer and Miria went on to translate everything on the Keepers side of the discussion.

Unaware of the translation happening Naruto turned to the Keeper completely. "Oh? Any luck?"

To Naruto's disappointment the Keeper shook its head no. **"No. Who knew it would be hard to find a couple of hybrids on this continent?"**

"It's a big place, Keeper; and you're one person." Naruto pointed out. "I would be surprised if you did."

" **Before the Fall, you humans had a saying for this sort of dilemma. A _'Needle in a haystack'_ I believe it was."**

"Well it certainly applies here."

" **Indeed it does."** nodded the other-worldly being. Then, for no reason whatsoever, the Keeper suddenly appeared within Nike's personal space.

The reaction to having an intimidating creature whose face is made mostly of teeth, and no eyes, was expected. She yelled out in surprise; Nike and those in close proximity stumbled away.

"Well... at least they're not going to try and murder you. Unlike a certain someone who ordered everyone to 'engage' the Keeper back at Pieta..." Naruto said once he was certain no one was going to take hostile action against the Keeper.

"At the time we were on edge, and expecting an attack at any moment. We didn't know if the Keeper was a friend or foe back then." Miria pointed out and defended her past decision; while she was well intentioned, it was Naruto's intervention that prevented everyone at Pieta from getting wiped off the face of the Earth.

"Fair enough."

" **So, can any of you bring me up to speed?"** the Keeper asked.

And so Miria and Naruto did.


	13. Chapter 13

Primis

Chapter 12

 _Three days after Naruto's return..._

It was evening; the sun was beginning to settle, and many people on the unnamed continent were about to sleep.

However in Alphonse, the named Northern Region of said continent, a party of bandits of a hundred strong, were facing an enemy they had never seen before.

"C'mon!" William, leader of the bandit party, shouted a rallying cry to his comrades; "There's only one of them!"

Indeed. There was one. But their weaponry was ineffective against it. Arrows bounced harmlessly off the armour. Crossbow bolts didn't make a dent in it. Swords, axes, spears and halberds ricochet off the surface.

They were fighting a Panzer Soldat, or as Naruto Namikaze calls it, a Tank Solider. The bandits may have the numbers on their side, but they were at a technical disadvantage. A very heavy technical disadvantage.

In return one of the poor sods that got close with his halberd, got grabbed by the massive rotating claw. He didn't get a chance to scream when he was slammed repeatedly into the ground. The first time knocked him unconscious, while breaking his spine. The second split his skull open killing him. The Panzer Soldat kept it up before throwing the broken corpse aside.

It then proceeded to set its flame-thrower on the bandits. Many men screamed in agony as they were set aflame and tried to put the fire out by rolling in the snow. It didn't work.

The Panzer Soldat was pelted with arrows and bolts to no avail. More and more people were getting put down. The party was beginning to panic until...

"R-Run away!"

...they broke and fled.

The command wasn't even from their leader. But it was the thing that broke the chain. The second the bandit party heard those two words, they broke and fled for their lives.

Or they would have, if it weren't for the rotten corpses that suddenly appeared in a flash of light. They were laid on the ground on their sides, on their backs, and on their front. Those closest to the bodies let out terrified screams as the carcasses rose to their feet unnaturally at the exact same time.

They hacked and slashed at the zombies; dismembering, impaling and disembodying them. But for many it did little to impair them, and were promptly taken to the ground; they let out anguished screams as they were devoured.

A few however, did manage to get away. Too few.

On a nearby snowy hill over looking the the Panzer Soldat, the newly arrived zombies and the party of bandits, was a small group of three men. All of whom were wearing medieval crusader armour. A surcoat over mail with a strange circular symbol on it; with steel plate boots and steel gloves. Two were Caucasian, and the third was Asian. All of them were in their early to mid-twenties, with two having beards. The third had a moustache.

"...This is unprecedented." said the Asian; he had a low, gruff and Japanese accent.

"Indeed." one of the Caucasian men said; he had a heavy German accent. "Ze undead are returning. Vith technology from ze past too! Zis is most troubling. Zey are not ready to face zem yet."

The third man growled at the back of his throat. "What about those women?" he asked in a heavy Russian accent. He looked at the fellow Caucasian, and Asian, "The ones with silver eyes? Would they stand chance against those filthy corpses?"

"It is too early to say, mein freund." answered the German. "But against ze common ones? Ja, I believe ze vill."

Then the German turned around and started walking. The Asian and Russian stayed in their spot, staring down at the massacre occurring before them with arms crossed.

"How rong can we remain in this realm?"

Then the German came back, carrying two mechanical staffs in hand, with the third on his back. They were the few, still working Wonder Weapons that survived the fall of the Old World. How no one had found them yet was a combination of the German's foresight, and luck.

"As long as Doctor Monty vants us to be."

With that said he handed the Staff of Ice to the Russian, and the Staff of Fire to the Asian, before brandishing his Staff of Lightning in a twirl. The men all turned on their Elemental Staffs, and their respective element enveloped the crystal located on the top.

They exchanged looks, nodded, then looked back at the still ongoing massacre, before leaping into the fray, staves going alight with power.

X.X.X.X

Within the mountains of Alphonse the ghost of 'Tank' Dempsey stirred. He appeared in the tomb as if emerging from a heavy fog. The man grunted as he looked off in the distance arms crossed.

"I see you're up and about."

Dempsey didn't show any outward reaction; he heard this voice before. "I'm dead, Monty. I can't do much else."

Emerging from the shadows was an elderly man with white hair and beard. He had a receding hairline and wore clothes , made of a dark green and red linen jacket with a blue buttoned shirt worn underneath, a pair of black fingerless gloves, black trousers and shoes.

"True. But I can easily solve that, you know." Monty said as he walked beside the ghost, hands clasped behind his back.

The former United States marine nodded. He that very much true. Doctor Monty is a being capable of doing a lot of things. "So, whaddya want from a dead man?" he asked of the near omnipotent being.

"Your help."

Those simple words got his attention; Dempsey gave Monty a curious glance. "I don't mean to be rude, man... but what the hell can I help you with? A snap of your fingers and you can do anything and everything." there was a pause; and the serious look the near omnipotent being gave him made him realise... "They're back aren't they?"

"No. Those Apothi-cocky-cons aren't back." Monty looked ahead as he added, "It doesn't mean their minions haven't found a way here though."

"...Oh. Fuck!"

"Indeed." Monty agreed, "I already revived the others. It's just you that's left."

Dempsey smirked. "So the others are alive again, eh? It'll be just like old times. " he looked at the man beside him. "Alright, let's do it."

Monty smiled and inclined his head. The next thing Dempsey knew he was briefly enveloped by light. Then as the light died down the American found he had a pulse again. He could breath, he could feel. Everything he missed and loathed while living was back.

"Where are the others now?" Dempsey questioned as he went to open his sarcophagus.

"They're in Alphonse right now. But they're too far for you to reach them in time though." Monty informed the man over the sound of stone moving.

It was silent for a moment; then the sound of stone being moved was heard through the room.

"But, you have a way around that." Dempsey said as he walked back, with the Staff of Wind in hand. It wasn't a question, it was a statement.

Instead of answering Monty gave the now-living man another smile. Then Dempsey looked over himself as he glowed; then he was gone from the tomb.

"Indeed I do, 'Tank'. Indeed I do."

Giving the statue a final look, Doctor Monty smiled again before he too disappeared from the tomb.

X.X.X.X

The first thing Dempsey noticed was the snow everywhere he looked. The second thing was the biting cold wind. And the third was the zombie, trying to tackle him to the ground. Dempsey retaliated by caving in its skull by bashing his Wind staff over its head.

It collapsed like a puppet had its strings severed. Grunting Dempsey trudged through the snow with determination he hadn't shown since he was alive. He could hear fighting up-ahead, along with the sound of the fire, lightning, and ice staffs being used. Looks like the others really are here; with a low chuckle Dempsey double timed it.

There was no way in hell he was missing this party!

He came across another zombie or two, but a quick bash to the scalp with his wind staff took care of them before they could really become a nuisance. And any groups he ran into - from seven and over – he got rid of by utilising a heavily underpowered blast of concentrated wind. It was still powerful enough to break bones, deliver blunt force trauma, and blow them off their feet however.

Minutes of following the noises brought Dempsey to a small group of men, young and middle-aged, who were trying to fight off on overwhelming number of zombies. He may have been far from them but even he could hear their yells of anguish and anger.

Dempsey ran to get a closer look and he saw. It looks like they were fighting their own. The dead do not discriminate. They were doing well in fending them off though and from the looks of it, they just discovered a way to permanently put them down.

They were hacking and severing the heads. The zombies were falling like flies but there was still too many to handle. Grunting Dempsey held the trigger on his wind staff down and ran over to the small group.

Samwise, Harkness, Samuel and Dommic were in deep trouble. They were running for their lives, only stopping to kill those... corpses, that managed to get close. William, the leader of the bandit party had been killed not too long ago.

Everyone else was running for their lives, and were getting picked off one by one. And the four of them, were too tired and too cold to fight effectively.

"We're so dead..." Samwise groaned, with despair.

"Not if we keep moving!" Dommic growled, dragging Samwise along with him by the arm with one hand, and holding his own sword with the other. He let out a yelling grunt as he drove his sword through the skull of a zombie that tried to tackle him. He kicked the now re-killed carcass off his sword and continued to run through the snow.

Despite being terrified and are possibly minutes away from dying, Samuel and Harkness were moving with determination. The snow and biting cold wind was hampering their movements but they were still going strong.

They were lucky those staff wielding men came when they did. They took away a large bulk of those walking corpses, including that heavy metal monstrosity, away from them. But they were still being chased however.

They came to a halt as more zombies appeared in front of them in a flash of light. They let out a curse and they got surrounded from all sides, they got in a circle and prepared for a last stand.

But then there was a rush of air and something threw the corpses - along with the snow - off their feet and into the air. They looked in the direction the air came from and they found another person, a man in his early twenties, wearing the same type of armour, and wielding a glowing tipped staff just like the previous three walking to them.

"I'd get moving if I were you." the man said once he was within hearing distance. He didn't stop walking either. He pressed the top of his staff against the torso of one of the zombified bandits, and they watched with horrific fascination as he was torn in half a moment later. With the snow following the top half of the torso.

The man stopped walking and looked at them from over his shoulder, "Go! Primis has this handled."

And with that the man ran into the fray. Killing any zombies in his way.

"Come on," Dommic said dragging a now more lively Samwise with him, "we need to go!"

"And warn someone! Anyone!" Samuel added; Dommic grunted in the affirmative and with that all four of them got the hell out of there.

X.X.X.X

This situation and circumstances brought back some memories. Whenever he put one down three more would rise to take its place. Being back in the battlefield, where all odds were stacked against him? Dempsey was filled with nostalgia. And it wasn't the good kind either.

He pressed the top of his staff against the stomach of a zombie, and watched with a satisfied smile as the undead was thrown back from the highly concentrated force of wind, that shot out of the mechanical weapon.

Too bad he isn't able to make a small tornado with this. Unfortunately, he's stuck with the non-upgraded wind staff. Still it was just as good; but it sucked he had to be close to the zombies for them to be instakilled.

Another zombie bashed over the head; another impaled with spikes that were under the top part; another was delivered a harsh kick to the ribs, before blown away point blank.

The man kept it up for several minutes. His fighting attracted more and more zombies to him. He didn't care for that; it was just another day for him. Dempsey's presence and fighting the undead didn't go unnoticed for long however.

Unknown to Dempsey who was too busy dealing with the zombies in front of him, a pair of zombies were starting to close the gap between them. He didn't know they were even approaching until he felt a searing heat on his back.

After taking care of the zombies in front of him, the man swiftly turned around, just in time to see two charred corpses fall to the ground.

"You need to be more aware, Dempsey." a familiar voice said from Dempsey's left.

Said man chortled. "It's hard to keep track if they're coming at you from all sides, y'know." he pointed out to the Asian.

Takeo Masaki is a man in his late twenties, sporting a neatly trimmed beard, and his hair having been tied back in a small, tight bun at the end of his scalp. He wore the same crusader armour as 'Tank' Dempsey, with the same crest. On his waist is the scabbard for his katana, Path of Sorrows, the only visible weapon he has on his possession excluding the Fire Staff.

"Vich is vhy ve are in teams."

Walking into Dempsey field of vision, were two Caucasian men. Both had neatly trimmed hair and were aged in their late twenties to early thirties. Like Dempsey and Takeo, they too are garbed in crusader styled armour. The German had a moustache and the man beside him, who was muttering some words in fluent Russian had a moustache and long goatee like beard. Both of them were holding the Ice and Lightning Staffs.

"Nikolai, Richtofen," Dempsey greeted, before letting out a chuckle full of nostalgia. "the four of us back together again. Seems like old times, doesn't it?"

Nikolai nodded agreeably. "Da, it does. If only Namikaze was here, then it will truly be like old times." he said with a disheartening sigh.

They went on full alert when they heard loud and metallic thudding feet heading for them. Dempsey let out an irritated growl, as he scowled at the figure approaching. A heavily armoured, figure that was protected head to toe in a movable metal suit, and it was effortlessly crushing zombies under its feet and knocking others out of its way.

Richtofen was understandably distressed. "Vat? A Pazer Soldat? Here!? Zat cannot be possible! Zey vere meant to be lost, vhen ze vorld vas almost destroyed during ze Great Var!" exclaimed the German.

While Richtofen was voicing his dismay, he along with Nikolai, Takeo and Dempsey all reloaded their staffs – which made the coloured fluid associated to their particular staffs to retract into the staves itself, before popping out a short moment later.

Takeo glared at the Panzer Soldat with no fear in his eyes. "Nevertheress, it sharr farr before us rike many before it!"

As one Dempsey, Nikolai, Takeo and Richtofen all aimed the top end of their staves at the face plate – the Soldat's only weak point - and pulled the trigger.

The shots of wind, ice, fire and lightning at the same time or one after the other, was more than enough to remove the protective plate after the fifth shot. It left the head of zombie inside exposed. But the men didn't stop there; they kept shooting until the suit exploded from the continued punishment. It may have been able to tank the powerful blasts, but there was only so much it could take.

And since it went up against four elemental staffs instead of one, it went down fairly quick. Having the right weapons, with enough people and knowing the weak points would make any foe go down. It merely depends how competent they are.

And Richtofen, Takeo, Nikolai and Dempsey have years of experience of fighting zombies and eldritch abominations of all types under their belt.

It was no surprise they were able to exploit its weakness and destroy it in record time before it could attack.

That was the turn of the tide. With the Panzer Soldat now taken care of, Primis got themselves in a circle, with everyone backing the man on either side of them, and started shooting at the zombies who were now running towards them.

They didn't stand a chance.

Even more so when a new arrival appeared.

X.X.X.X

It wasn't just North that was attacked however.

In the Eastern region of Lautrec, the towns of Lacroa, Stora and Hanel were under attack. It was completely unexpected. One moment everything was piece and quiet, and the next the towns residences were screaming and running for their lives as the walking dead showed up at their doorstep, devouring people they managed to get their pale dead hands on who in turn came back as zombies.

For Hanel, the zombies numbering over three hundred, appeared on the outskirts of the town. It didn't have any defences, such as walls or palisades. The zombies were able to waltz right into town and no one was the wiser to their presence... until they started leaping through windows.

While many of them tried to escape or fight back they were woefully unprepared for the sheer savageness and brutality of the dead. Fires enveloped buildings in an attempt to halt the dead. It didn't work.

Stora was similar to Hanel. It had no walls or palisades to keep out potential invaders. However the zombies, numbering five hundred in total, appeared directly in the mist of the town. This large party had three Panzer Soldat's in their mist however, and the loud sound of thrusters woke up a lot of people from their sleep.

It was then the sounds of people screaming were heard followed by the inhuman howls of the dead.

Then the zombies attacked; leaping through the building windows, bashing down their doors with their inhuman strength, or in the case of the Panzer Soldat bull rushing through a wall and allowing the zombies a way in.

A lot of able bodied people fought the dead using whatever utilities they had on hand. But they simply had too many things working against them; they were groggy from having being forced awake; the zombies were relentless and never stopping; the zombies had three Panzer Soldats that set many buildings on fire along with their residence; and finally, the zombies were stronger and faster than them.

Lacroa had two things the other towns did not: thick, and tall solid brick walls, and a local militia. The walls didn't do much to keep them out, since the walking dead appeared inside of the town. The militia were caught with their figurative pants down, but were able to respond and engage the dead as they started devouring the populace and turning them to zombies once they were done with gusto.

They had a better time fighting the zombies, hacking and slashing at them as they came. But they were only human and were inevitably devoured by the dead. However, they were able to buy the civilians time to flee the town and warn others of the impending threat.

If they managed to get that far that is.

Many towns in Lautrec, the Western Region of the continent, were under attack as well. Many were able to fend off the zombies, some outright wiping them out but suffered many causalities doing so. Others were not so lucky and were wiped out.

Other towns in other regions were under attack also. Some had to defend against Hellhounds; others had to defend against Panzer Soldat's – which never ended well for the defenders, given their major technological disadvantage – and a majority had to fight against a combination of the three, which ended up with said towns being wiped out.

One place however, would be under attack by normal zombies... and a new enemy.

X.X.X.X

At the same time within the Southern Region of Mucha, in a town named Alnwick were two silver eyed women. Both of them were garbed in a black two piece, leather bodysuit, with spaulders, gauntlets and boots made from leather and plate metal. Worn on top of them were black cloaks.

They were fighting off the walking dead that just showed up out of the blue. Both women have short hair; the first had her hair parted down the middle with one side tucked behind her ear; the second had a pixie cut.

They are Helen and Deneve.

Initially surprised at the dead sudden appearance within and - currently unknown to them - around Alnwick, the two were quick to fight them off when they began their assault.

With a scowl and a ferocious glare, Helen stretched out her arm holding her claymore and decapitated many zombies. Deneve swung her claymore to and fro so fast she had bisected and decapitated many of the walking corpses in seconds.

"Tch!" Helen retracted her arm back to its normal length, decapitating the heads of many more zombies that were in its path. "Why is the walking dead here?!" she yelled out in irritated confusion.

Deneve grunted as she slashed her claymore at a group of zombies that tried to surround her. Their heads fell from their shoulders, and all collapsed to the ground like the strings to a puppet had been cut.

"Less talking! More killing!" the pixie-haired woman barked.

Suddenly both women vanished from their spot; a moment later, they reappeared next to each other. Many zombies behind them suddenly exploded into several large chunks and a spray of blood. The women didn't have time to relax however; more and more zombies were crawling and stumbling out of the woodwork.

Helen noticed with grim realization that many of the walking dead were the townsfolk of Alnwick. Others were wearing clothes similar to the one Naruto Namikaze wore.

Growling as she scowled Helen held up her arm, pointing her sword directly at a line of zombies. Her limb stretched out and started slashing at the walking dead. Deneve held her sword out in front of her, and dealt with any zombies that got close. Helen retreated her outstretched arm and kept on with her hacking and slashing.

The two becoming literal blurs in the battlefield as zombie after zombie fell before them.

Unseen by any of the women a glyph appeared on a wall. The glyph glowed when a zombie was killed near it, but still went unnoticed. Up until a dragon's head and neck, with fire drooling from its maw, burst out of it with a loud ear ringing roar.

Alarmed at its sudden appearance, the two silver eyed women initially thought it was hostile, and were about to attack it. That was until it started incinerating the zombies, and devour the dead that were close enough for it to lunge at them.

Once it was done eating the dragon took a quick look around at its surroundings, and narrowed its smouldering, fiery eyes upon seeing the state of the town it found itself in. While the building were standing, the windows were smashed and doors were torn from its hinges.

And there was a lot of corpses lying around on the floor headless or in pieces. It looked at Helen and Deneve for a moment, memorising their looks into its brain before it retreated back into the glyph. It stayed there however instead of disappearing.

While alarmed the dragon had gone away they were a little preoccupied with the zombies. So they went back to fighting them.

X.X.X.X

The Central Region named Toulouse was untouched. As a result of this, everyone there was completely unaware of the zombie attacks that are happening elsewhere.

The city folk of Rabona were still unsettled by the Keeper. They quickly got use to seeing it, hanging around with another new comer to the city, Naruto Namikaze. It was the word from Miria, Cynthia,Yuma, Flora, Veronica and Eliza that kept Naruto and the Keeper from being kicked out of the city itself.

And the not to subtle warning from Miria, with the other women knowing the Keeper supporting her, that trying to attack the otherworldly being would be the last mistake you would ever make.

With the Keeper caught up with everything that happened in the past seven years, it was saddened to learn the twenty-five survivors had been reduced to eleven. Nevertheless it took this news in stride.

Naruto has been trying to adapt to his home dimension again ever since he managed to get back. Things in that time weren't all that boring for him either. His uniform had been taken away to get the dried blood cleaned out of it, and had retrieved it several hours later. And he had a nice bath to wash the dirt, blood and grime off his skin.

He was also asked by Cynthia to give the guards a demonstration on his FG-42 in action. He agreed to do so on the condition that no one were to get behind the targets or around the target dummies. Suffice to say they were shocked at how devastating – and loud – his battle rifle was when it's being used. The target dummies Naruto was allowed to use was destroyed beyond repair by the bullets ripping through the wood, rope and straw.

But other than that the blond mostly kept to himself; the many cycles and deaths the blond went through changed him. When night came, he would always sleep with his FG-42 on hand. The constant moans and screams of the damned were to deeply engraved in his mind to ignore.

The only time he felt safe – truly safe – was when he had his battle rifle in hand. While he wasn't afraid of death – being subject to twenty-eight of them numbed him to such a concept – it didn't mean he can or cannot feel safe.

If he couldn't go to sleep – something that unfortunately happened ever since he got out of that dimension – he would stay up for a bit and try to do something that would pass the time.

Fortunately his late night activities didn't bother anyone.

X.X.X.X

It was the fourth night since he came back. Four nights and three days, and Naruto still wasn't able to get some peaceful sleep.

He decided to do something about it, so time can pass.

As he took a stroll through the streets of Rabona Naruto noticed there wasn't a lot of guards out and about at night. There were barely any at all to be honest.

He heard a 'puff' sound beside him.

" **Having trouble sleeping?"** Naruto didn't show any surprise, nor did he react when the Keeper suddenly showed up and talked to him.

"Pretty much." he exhaled tiredly. Naruto groaned as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Christ, this is annoying. I'm to used to the sound the zombies make." he gestured around him. "This... doesn't feel normal anymore."

" **Hmm... that is a dilemma. Perhaps taking a stroll is the-"** The Keeper cut itself off as it stopping moving and looked towards the North.

Hearing the Keeper cut itself off Naruto stopped walking and looked back at the otherworldly being with a questioning look. "Is something the matter?"

The Keeper disappeared without giving an answer.

While initially bewildered at its sudden disappearance Naruto wasn't too distraught the Keeper had just upped and left him. Sighing the blond was about to go back to having a stroll, up until he saw a glyph appear on the wall of a house.

Not a moment later the draconic head of Ember emerged from the glyph and took saw Naruto on the road. The blond immediately walked over because he remembered what he told her three days ago: no come back if she sees the zombies.

"Naruto! There's trouble! Come quickly!" Ember ushered him.

Before he could answer the she-dragon retreated back inside of the glyph, and to his surprise it shone as a small portal opened in the middle of it.

The blond looked both ways, unslung his FG-42 and took a running start to the portal and leapt into it.

X.X.X.X

It was an instant – but when the blond went through the glyph, he felt... a rush overcome him. Weightless even. And when he popped out the other side he was assaulted with the familiar noises of zombies.

Naruto touched the ground and rolled along it before popping back up in a kneel, his rifle raised and ready to fire. He quickly aimed the barrel of his rifle in all directions. He was a bit relieved there wasn't any of the living dead around.

There is a lot of bodies though – most were in chunky pieces, others were for the most part intact. Just had their heads and arms severed from the neck and torso.

Naruto crouch ran to one of the corpses, a man in his early years from the looks of it, and gave it a quick look over.

The blond made a face as he turned the body over on its back, and pulled up his shemagh scarf over his nose to block out the smell of iron. It helped block out the stench but not by much.

"Missing head. Large chunks of skin ripped off. Bloody tunic and trousers." he dipped his fingers on the bloodied tunic and rubbed his thumb and fore and middle fingers together. "Warm blood too."

He wiped his fingers on the clothing that wasn't stained by blood to get the fluid off. Naruto quickly got up as he aimed the barrel of his battle rifle ahead of him upon hearing a multitude of groans. He lowered his gun slightly in irritation at what he saw.

Shambling towards him with their arms outstretched was a crowd of zombies. Many of them were bloated severely. Mostly on their arms, legs and head. But what made him annoyed, is the fact they were the zombies from that alternate dimension!

And among them...

"...Zombified yoma, huh?" Naruto exhaled in tried irritation.

He saw how different they were compared to the teleporting ones he fought. They had several chunks of flesh skin and muscle missing, especially around the stomach and torso area. Pouring from the large gaps was a conspicuous amount of puss and blood, that was steadily forming a hardened foam like substance around their body.

Conveniently enough, said foam did not form around the gaping holes.

"I just hope you're not worse than those teleporting fuckers..." the blond told himself; taking a deep breath and exhaling Naruto brought up his battle rifle and opened fire on the first zombie that came within his iron sights, that just so happened to be a normal zombie.

The gunfire wouldn't go unnoticed however.

X.X.X.X

As they finished killing another wave of Alnwick's zombified townsfolk Helen and Deneve looked at the bodies left in their wake. The streets were almost filled to the brim with bodies and body parts. The ground literally had a river of blood.

The former clenched and unclenched her fist. Hundreds. They brought down a quarter of a thousand of them at least and the numbers of the people that were killed and reanimated as those... shambling corpses were growing more and more.

Seeing as they were getting more and more tired the longer they stayed here and fought, Deneve looked to her friend. "Helen, if we stay here any longer we'll eventually get overwhelmed. We have to go!" she told her.

Helen scowled looking as if she wanted to refuse, before sighing and giving her friend a nod, knowing a lost cause when she saw one. "Fine. Let's get out of here."

Both women turned and started to make their way out of Alnwick; only to come to a stop when they heard gun-fire. Helen and Deneve shared a look before the latter bolted off towards the noise, with Deneve giving out a curse before following after her.

Both women moved quickly through the body littered, blood covered streets. The sounds of gunfire getting louder and louder, until they reached the source.


	14. Chapter 14

Primis

Chapter 13

Naruto found that the normal, bloated zombies were easy to deal with. The zombified yoma with the foam hardening on their body, were a little difficult. Not obscenely thankfully. The blond was quick to learn that the foam, despite being hardened is able to absorb the bullets instead of chipping away at them.

However the areas the foam does not cover is where the chunks of flesh are missing. Shooting at those had caused them to stagger back... before continuing forward. But from the amount of blood spilling out – and hardening on the ground - told the blond those gaps were their weak spot.

Thankfully they were slow moving. Like a juggernaut. So fighting them was easy peasy.

Though he wondered how he knew what a juggernaut was... Meh, he'll chalk it up to Element one-fifteen, Divinium or whatever it's called. He still has it in him. And in the blood vial.

…Huh. He almost forgot about that.

But back to the point; Naruto was able to kill one of the new, zombified yoma types. But he wasted half of his current magazine on it. Fuckers were able to soak up the bullets thanks to the foam covering most of their body. It was like a walking suit of armour...

Huh, that's a good name for 'em. Armour. Or Armour-class.

One of the foam covered yoma's stepped on the back of its fallen comrade, before the foot pushed down and through the back! What happened next made Naruto stop shooting and stare in wide eyed disgust.

The body started twitching erratically. Then bones snapped as the limbs bent in in ways they were not suppose to be bent. Then spurts of blood shot out of every orifice and pores as it flattened itself before merging with the zombified yoma, mixing in with the foam like armour and hardening it even further. Literally becoming one with it.

As a result it ended up having a more thicker armour, which still didn't cover the weak points thankfully, and grew several inches in height; so much so that it slightly towered over the other zombies. Along with gaining a massive blade for an arm.

"...Oh, this just keeps getting better and better!" Naruto sarcastically exclaimed, a heavy scowl pulling at his lips.

The blond pulled the trigger once more, focusing his fire on the tallest foam covered yoma as that was the bigger threat. The foam once more soaked up all the bullets that didn't manage to hit their target. The ones that struck true, had caused more and more blood to spurt out from the exposed wounds and on to the floor.

The blade armed armour reared said arm back before throwing it forward.

The blond quickly combat rolled out of the way, when the arm stretched forward and slammed onto the ground Naruto use to be standing on. He rolled on his back and aimed at the exposed wound on the bicep of the armour's sword arm.

The armour staggered back reeling and hissing from the force of the bullets hitting its weak spot. The sword arm dragged against the ground as the yoma moved.

The blond quickly got back up and continued opening fire. While that was happening he was wondering where in the hell Ember was!?

As if she were responding to his thoughts, the she-dragon partially emerged from a glyph moments after it suddenly appeared near the zombies. The she dragon let loose a stream of fire on the zombies upon entering the physical world. The normal undead were torched until they were nothing more than charred flesh and bone.

The tanks had their foam shell burnt off but were otherwise mostly unharmed. Their exposed injuries had seen to that.

The blond quickly reloaded his FG-42 with a fresh magazine and was about to open fire on the mutated yoma's, only to stop from doing so when a claymore held by an outstretched arm – quite literally at that – came out of nowhere and bisected the normal zombies by the waist.

The taller foam covered yoma side staggered as the charred armour around its torso was shattered by the blade. The arm was pulled back as it reached out to grab it.

Naruto quickly looked in the direction the arm retreated too and to his surprise, found a heavily scowling Helen standing near the exit of an alleyway with a frowning Deneve behind her. Both were staring at the foam covered yoma's who were now looking in their direction, and they didn't notice Naruto standing just opposite the zombies.

"Huh. I'll be damned..." the blond murmured to himself, then he noticed the zombified yoma's were heading towards the silver eyed women rather than him. Growling Naruto took aim once more and opened fire – the bullets striking the exposed holes in their foam armour, and bringing their attention, along with Helen and Deneve's, back on to him.

Both women grew wide eyed when they finally saw him. He should been twenty-three-years old by now, but doesn't look over a day over sixteen-years-old!

"N-Naruto...?" Helen uttered softly, she was so shocked and surprised to see him here after so many years of being missing she almost dropped her claymore to the ground in relief. Deneve was in a similar boat as her friend; but unlike Helen she was prepared in the likelihood he would never return again.

She's glad to know she's wrong.

"Helen! Deneve! Nice to see you two again!" Naruto yelled to them from over the sound of his gun.

"When did you get back?!" Helen called out as she ran over to him, with Deneve hot on her trail.

"Survive now, talk later!" he quickly readjusted his aim when the almost towering fell to a knee with its sword for an arm laid out flat on the ground. He kept up the fire in its exposed holes in the armour. It didn't make any sign of reaction to getting bullets struck in one of its weak spots. "This is the first time I've ever seen this type of zombified yoma!"

Deneve quickly got on the analystic side of things as she stared at it. "What's covering its body?" she questioned.

"It's puss and blood." At seeing the disgusted looks on their faces Naruto shrugged and said. "Yeah, gross I know. But, somehow, those two combined made a very strong foam like substance that's used as protective armour. Unless I aim for the open wounds the foam and puss didn't bother to cover, then for all intents and purposes it's invulnerable to my weapon."

"Are there any other weaknesses?" Helen asked as both herself and Deneve held their claymore's up, poised and ready to strike.

"The foam is apparently weak to fire." Naruto looked at Ember who was watching the two hybrids with narrowed eyes. "Luckily there's a fire-breathing dragon with us."

"They're constantly bleeding, Naruto. I won't be able to keep breathing fire if their armour keeps regrowing." the she-dragon told the blond.

Once the current magazine in his FG-42 ran out Naruto was forced to change it. "All you need to do is char the foam, Ember. I'll take care of the rest." the blond replied as he looked at the still partially emerged dragon, the casual way Naruto talked to it made Helen and Deneve exchange looks.

All the dragon did was roar and hiss. That was really nostalgic and familiar.

The pixie-haired woman looked at him. "You can understand the creature?"

"Yeah! Because all we can hear is it roaring and hissing." Helen said aloud, before she had a thoughtful look. "Kinda like the Keeper now that I think about it." she added as an afterthought.

Naruto nodded as he locked the magazine into place. "Yes, I can understand her." he took aim at the tall yoma that is now slowly shambling over to them again. The other armours were trailing behind it. "And yes, Ember is a girl."

Naruto took aim at the hole on the shoulder that connects its sword arm to the rest of its body, and promptly opened fire on it using short controlled bursts. It didn't show any reaction.

Scowling Naruto allowed his battle rifle hang from his shoulder, and held his left hand out in front of him. Wrath of the ancients appeared in his hand and he immediately pulled back on the string. An arrow flamed tip appeared between his fore, middle fingers and thumb. He let the arrow loose and watched as it embedded itself in the foam armour, where it proceeded to explode in a show of fire.

The force of the explosion knocked back the mutated yoma; and disbelievingly, the sword arm accidentally buried itself in the torso of another armour ranked yoma. Helen and Deneve watched with sickened fascination, as the yoma that had been impaled started twitching uncontrollably. Then the sound of bones breaking and snapping were heard, as the entire body started to visibly combust. Its entire body collapsed in on itself as blood and puss poured out of every pore on its body. Then it slid up along the amours body, becoming the second being to merge with it.

As a result the merged being grew in height and size. The foam like substance repaired itself.

"It's regenerating..." Helen said the obvious.

"Does it constantly regenerate every time it cuts into something?" Deneve asked aloud.

"Apparently so." Naruto scowled as he pulled back on the string. "Before you showed up it literally crushed the spine, and ribcage of one of its own." he let loose on the arrow that formed. "What happened after that, is what you just saw." concluded the blond as he watched the arrow get a direct hit in the shoulder that was not protected.

The resulting explosion blew off the yoma's sword arm in a grand display of fire, skin, flesh and blood. The shockwave from said explosion sent the zombified yoma stumbling to the ground. And ended getting its entire head crushed beneath the clawed foot of another armour-classed yoma.

Helen, Deneve and Naruto grimaced couldn't look away as its entire body started twitching uncontrollably with the sound of breaking and snapping bones as the entire body combust. Then the entire body collapsed on itself with blood and puss pouring out every pore until it resembled nothing but a puddle on the ground. Then it slid up along the third armour-classed yoma, merging with it; the three blond's watched as it grew taller and taller until it towered over them by several feet.

Its size was comparable to a bus.

Blood and gore shot from its back as several appendages literally grew out of it: four wavy tentacles made entirely out of flesh...

If it wasn't so horrifying to look at Naruto would have cracked a joke about 'seeing enough hentai to see where this was going.'. Then it pointed its right arm at the severed sword claw and three mass of tendrils shot out of its twist; they coiled around the severed limb and swung it at the hybrids and human.

Before it swung it though, Naruto knew what it was about to do and grabbed Helen and Deneve by the shoulder. He dragged them down to the ground; they both let out undignified yelps as they were just dragged down on their backs by Naruto. A moment later they saw the massive sword arm, thing, pass over them.

They leaned up to look at the armour-classed zombified yoma, just in time to see the tendrils retract back into its wrist. It let out a loud, blood curling howl as blood and sinew exploded from the wrist and severed arm. Tendrils coiled around the separate limbs before sinking into the skin. Revealing that both completely separate limbs have merged into one big one.

Then to their horror, more tendrils shot out of its body from various places, impaling the other armour-classed yoma and reducing them to a gooey fluid that quickly merged with it. Now it was taller than a four storey building; the foam armour became thicker, the sword arm was longer and broader.

And its sword arm was splitting the street into two while walking to them...

Naruto immediately got up and shot arrow after arrow at it. Helen and Deneve got up as well and started to back away with Naruto as it brought up its sword arm – partially destroying a building in the process - to block the arrows.

It didn't even react when they exploded upon contact; nor did it slow down.

"Ember!" said she-dragon, who had finished devouring several zombies that tired attacking her, looked at Naruto when she heard her name. "Get the glyph close to us! We're getting out of here!"

She nodded and retreated into the glyph, which disappeared moments later. Naruto, Helen and Deneve looked to their right when it reappeared again. It glowed as a portal opened in the middle of it.

Wrath of the ancients dispersed into particles as Naruto grabbed Helen and Deneve by the arm.

"Okay! Time to go!" Naruto exclaimed as he ran to said portal with the hybrids being pulled with him. He looked over his shoulder and screamed in a panic when the damned thing started running at them. Naruto leapt into the portal with Helen and Deneve.

Its form changed – though not by much, as it became much thinner – as it chased after them. And when it got to the portal it leapt forward, where much of its upper body got through before it stopped at its thighs.

X.X.X.X

When they got out the other side, Helen and Deneve were let go, and while they kept running until the tenth step, Naruto stopped after five and looked back at the portal. He stared; he waited; but Ember did not emerge.

The blond frowned and narrowed his eyes, feeling something wasn't right, the Wrath of the Ancients appeared in his left hand once more and he turned to face the portal. Naruto's frown became more pronounced when said portal expanded a little, and bared his teeth when a familiar sword arm emerged from it.

It was raised in the air... with him directly below it.

"NARUTO!" Helen shouted out in a panic.

Said blond quickly dived and rolled out of the way, just moments before the overly sized sword came down. If no one was awake by Helen screaming, they most definitely were upon the impact the sword arm had when it smashed itself against the ground.

The head of the armour-class yoma came through the portal, roaring so loud it could be heard for several miles, followed by its upper body and second arm and dragged itself out as far as possible through pushing against the building behind it, and stopped when it reached its hips.

Naruto, was now standing, took an involuntary step back when saw its eyeless gaze on him. His eyes slowly grew wide when it tried grabbing him with its other arm.

"Oh, god, why me!?" Naruto shouted as he quickly backed away from the armour-class zombie. The mutated, zombified, mass of yoma puss and blood dug its fingers into the street the blond was just on, missing him by a hairs breath, and pulled out a chunk of the earth.

However instead of throwing it at him, as Naruto expected the being to do, it instead tossed the chunk of the ground at Helen and Deneve. Instead of moving to avoid it both women sliced it into many small, harmless pieces when it got within their sword's reach.

It was to distract them as the women quickly realised; the giant mass of blood and puss changed its sword arm back to normal. Other than the overly long arm that was. Helen and Deneve both found that they were beset by a series of tendrils that spouted from the giant yoma's wrist and nails; all of which they managed to slice and dice into pieces; but they were kept on attacking, driving their focus away from Naruto and onto its tentacles trying to impale them.

This left the giant monster to focus on Naruto... who proceeded to shoot a blue flame tipped arrow on its exposed neck wound. THIS made the monster screech out in pain, as the resulting explosion threw its head to the side as a part of its neck and lower jaw, became an explosion of a bloody, gory mess.

The chunks of flesh that touched the ground quickly melted and became puddles of blood and puss. However the damage inflicted on the monster regenerated; but the wound was still uncovered.

With the monster roaring as loud as it possibly can neither Naruto, Helen or Deneve heard people approaching. Not until the blond saw dozens of crossbow bolts harmlessly embedded in the monsters thick armour.

He quickly looked in the direction the bolts came from and found several dozen soldiers armed with crossbows were in the middle of reloading said weapon.

The blond quickly looked back at the monster, and was quick to roll out of the way of several tendrils. Laying on his back Naruto looked back and found many of the soldiers were impaled through the stomach.

"Oh, shit!"

Naruto could only watch in horror as the tendrils began to collapse, and then bloat up like it was sucking at something. At the time time the men started to look as if they were having all their fluids sucked out of them. Slowly becoming nothing but skin and bone.

Growling Naruto swapped Wrath of the Ancients out for his Ancients Wrath; he sat up, with his now blue flame enveloped sword, and cut through the tendrils like a hot knife through butter. He rolled to his feet and back-peddled away from the giant monster with his sword raised to ward it away.

Naruto kept his eyes on the monster as he yelled. "How are they back there?"

"N-Not good!" he heard one of the men reply. "They're alive, but they are not doing so good!"

"Drag them away!" he ordered. "And whatever you do, avoid those tendrils! It will be the difference between life and death!" Then he remembered what happened to the other armour-class yoma when Ember breathed fire on it. He looked at his bow and pulled back on the string; an arrow manifested between his fingers and thumb.

An arrow with a flame enveloped tip.

The blond took aim and fired arrow, after arrow, after arrow at the monster. Each arrow exploded on contact, causing the points of impact to explode in a show of blood and gore, and the shockwave knocked the monster on its side.

This in effect stopped the assault Helen and Deneve were under. With them no longer being attacked the two blondes quickly moved positions.

Then, suddenly, out of nowhere Miria appeared before them like a mirage; the woman had her backs to them and was staring at the monster with narrowed eyes. Then she looked over her shoulder and was surprised to see two of her friends in Rabona.

"Helen! Deneve! When did you get here? I thought you both were in Alnwick?" while she was happy to see them, the woman had to know how they got back without any one knowing.

It was Deneve who answered. "Long story short: Naruto."

After saying that, more and more hybrids appeared on the scene. All of them were familiar, but too few were well known amongst them. They were on the roofs and floor.

And as for said blond, he started choking when a tendril wrapped itself around his neck and held him off the ground. Growling Naruto grabbed one of his Ragnarok DG-4's and stuck the bottom end of it into the tendril. He turned it on and took sadistic joy when the electricity from the wonder weapon, raced up and down along the entire length of the tendril. Shocking the entire limb it was connected to.

Then the entire tendril, and a small part of its palm the thing was connected too, exploded in a grand display of blood. Naruto let out a pained grunt as he got dropped on his ass, and quickly crawled back as the monster started thrashing in pain.

It was weak to Element one-fifteen powered weapons, and Keeper based weapons. Getting an idea Naruto looked at Helen.

"Helen, catch!"

Said blonde looked at him, startled, and reflexively caught Ancients Wrath. Naruto pointed at the weak point the monsters upper shoulder.

"Make sure you hit the open gap in its armour!" He yelled to her over the noise of the monster's howling and thrashing. "It's the thing's weak point!"

"What should the others do?" Deneve asked as Helen began winding up her arm, that is holding Wrath of the Ancients to form the drillsword.

"To not get hit!" he answered. "The moment those tendrils impale them, then unless someone manages to severe them, they're fucked!" the blond then turned to the rest of the soldiers. "Also, anyone with ranged weapons, should only shoot at the open parts of its armour! And for gods sakes, make them count!"

Naruto quickly turned his attention back to the monster and snarled when he saw it's hand reaching to grab him. Instead of getting out of the way Naruto, yelled at everyone to not get close as he grabbed the other Ragnarok DG-4 and activated it. Just as the hand was about to grab him, Naruto turned his arm up and drove the wonder weapon in the middle of its healed palm and pulled the trigger.

The Element one-fifteen charged electricity shocked the monster; causing it to roar out in agony as as it started to spasm. The foam around its arm crumbled to the ground. Several soldiers armed with ranged weapons took that time to open fire. Many arrows and crossbow bolts missed their intended target, thanks to the monster thrashing around in pain from the electric shock, but did manage to embed itself into the newly exposed flesh.

Naruto yanked the wonder weapon out from its palm and then dived and rolled out from under the oversized hand. At the same time Helen took aim at the open wound on the things shoulder, from her side and her arm stretched while it unwound. To Naruto, as he stared at it, the technique looked like a propeller.

He stared in awe as the technique completely and utterly reduced the monster's shoulder, upper torso and a large part of its head into a large mess of blood and goop. The severed sword arm fell to the ground, limp.

But somehow, despite it not healing, it was still alive!

The monster roared in agony as it quickly retreated back into the portal. Naruto breathed a sigh of relief and looked to Helen, nodding at her with a relieved smile.

Then suddenly a large amount of tendrils shot out of the portal, reconnected with the severed arm, which then proceeded to spear Naruto through the stomach!

"Naruto!" a wide eyed Helen screamed out in utter terror.

Naruto lurched backwards, flinched and shakingly looked down. The blade pierced him through the front and back. He could feel the blood running down his back and stomach. The blond dropped the Ragnarok DG-4's to the ground and grabbed the flat of the blade.

"Ugh... Guh..." he winced as he tried pushing the blade out of him. It wouldn't budge and only made him bleed more. "So..." his blood began to drench his uniform. "...this is what being stabbed is like?"

He lurched forward with a pained grunt, when the blade was pulled out of him and into the portal where it closed a second later. Naruto fell to his knees holding on to his stomach to stop the bleeding. It wasn't working.

The blood from the monster disintegrated itself so it would not be collected to be used against them.

Helen and Deneve caught him by the shoulders to keep him from falling over.

"Fuck fuck fuck! Deneve, what the hell do we do?!" Helen yelled in a panic.

"Stop the bleeding, that's what!" Deneve yelled back at her. She and Helen proceeded to add pressure on the exit wound on Naruto's back. Trying their damnedest to at least slow the flow of blood.

"Don't just sit there you two, get him up!" They heard Miria bark.

Naruto paid them no mind. The blond looked over his shoulder to his backpack. The blood vial. He's going to bleed out of this rate... and he didn't want to die. Getting a determined look, Naruto pushed Helen's hand off his shoulder so he could grab the blood vial.

He yanked it off and held it in front of him.

"Naruto, what's that?" Miria questioned him.

Naruto uncorked the vial and held in front of him as he said. "Remember I said, when I didn't know, who rescued me from the Organization?"

Miria looked at him with suspicion. Why did he bring that up? "...Yeah?" Then her eyes grew wide.

Naruto chuckled when he saw the look on her face. "Yeah." he brought the vial to his lips. "I lied." and he drank the crimson fluid and barely resisted gagging when the bitter taste of iron got on his tongue.

But he chugged it down like a pro, and when the vial was empty, he tossed it aside and hunched over with a groan as the two versions of Element one-fifteen contained within mixed and merged with his own.

His wound healed and Naruto got to his feet seemingly against his will. Knowing something was wrong Deneve quickly got away. The blond growled as before everyone's eyes his skin paled, like a corpse, and his eyes gained a glowing orange tint to them.

Lastly a fog-like mist began constantly emitting from his body, but would disperse a few metres into the air. Then to the surprise of everyone, he fell to his knees again and sat there. Growling and snarling as he tried to rein in control of his body that was slowly reaching out of his control.

It wasn't working. He couldn't... couldn't get control of himself. His past flashed before his eyes. The way he was treated. The way everyone looked at him, even his own sisters, Mine and Fuyu made him feel useless. Worthless.

He... wasn't good enough. Just like his... parents said he was. Maybe... maybe it would be for the better if he did die here.

"What is this?"

Naruto Namikaze looked up. ahead of him, as did everyone else, and the blond was very surprised at seeing himself; more specifically, Primis Naruto, the one he met in the other dimension.

"...What?" Namikaze Naruto whispered in disbelief.

Spectre Naruto gave the Namikaze an inquisitive frown. "What are you doing, Naruto? Why, aren't you fighting for control over your body?" he questioned him.

Namikaze Naruto looked down at the ground; he couldn't look the spectre in the eyes. "What, can I do? I'm useless."

Spectre Naruto scoffed. "That's bullshit, and you know it."

"Is it, though?" the blond retorted tiredly. "Ever since I lost my memory all those years ago... Ever since I wasn't able to do anything they wanted me to do, my family, didn't think I was worth having around." he breathed, as his eyes partially closed. "They stopped treating me as their child, and started, treating me as a stranger. Like... like I wasn't worth anything in their eyes. Maybe they were right. Maybe, I am nothing."

"They were bullshitting you, Naruto!" the ghost said, as he looked to Helen, Deneve, Miria, Cynthia and Yuma. He then looked back down at the blond. "You are worth something! To someone!"

The Namikaze gasped as he hunched over, falling onto his hands. The blond growled as his veins became darker and darker a stark contrast to his pale skin, and his eyes started to bleed into empty, glowing orange eye sockets.

"Worth something, eh?" Naruto growled as he slowly stood up, and swayed unsteadily before righting himself. He gave the ghost a fierce glare. "What a joke. I'm not worth anything..."

He grunted in surprise when he felt someone put their hands on his shoulders. When he quickly looked in both directions he was astonished to see that Helen and Deneve were the ones touching him. Then Miria, Cynthia and Yuma, Flora, Eliza and Veronica followed suit.

"You're not worthless. If it wasn't for you, then the causalities at Pieta would have been numerous." Miria told him.

Naruto bared his teeth and growled. He was evidently struggling with himself, Miria realised. "But it wasn't me, it was the Keeper." he pointed out to her.

Deneve immediately countered him. "It was you who put our safety above your own. You allowed us to be taken out of there first. And when the awakened beings were converging on the city, what did you do?" she asked him expectantly.

"...I, snuck out of there." the blond answered her.

Deneve nodded. "You're not useless. Not even close." the woman had a lot of conviction in her words. Naruto looked at the other six and say they were nodding with the same amount of conviction as Deneve.

Well... with that many people believing in him, he can't just go and give up, now can he? With a low growl Naruto started fighting back.

The spectre grinned with satisfaction as he nodded to himself. "Now that's the Naruto I remember!" he exclaimed.

With determination welling in his very being, Naruto Namikaze was able to regain complete control over his body. His skin regained colour, and his eyes changed back to normal. Inhaling and exhaling Naruto brought his hands to his face and looked at his blood soaked palms then he looked down at his front.

Oh. Now that was a lot of blood he lost.

Seeing as he had calmed down, Helen, Deneve, Miria, Yuma Flora, Veronica and Eliza took their hands off him.

Then he looked at the spectre with a furrowed brow; he remembered something. And the ghost saw the look on his face.

"What is it?" Spectre Naruto asked him.

"What the hell is a scrub?" Namikaze Naruto questioned him.

"Oh, well, a scrub is what you call someone who's bad at something. It can also be used for other things too..."

And so began the pointless and unneeded attempt at explaining what a scrub is.


	15. Chapter 15

Primis

Chapter 14

Back in Alphonse, a massacre was finishing.

It's funny thing, really. To see an enemy, the foot soldiers of the Apothicons, that nearly brought humanity to their knees losing to a group of people they heavily outnumbered.

A single bolt of lightning, would split into many, upon making contact with a walking corpse. Making a chain lightning that would in turn cause as many as ten walking corpses to fall to the ground as if their strings had been cut.

A force of concentrated wind, would throw the corpses off their feet, killing them – again at that – before they would touch the ground.

A blast of ice would freeze the zombies in place. Halting them mid-place or In mid-run.

And a small stream of fire would leave the zombies charred.

With the zombies left in various states, it was a curb stomp battle. The four legendary heroes of the Old World were back to back, and were removing the small army of zombies from the world before they could do any real damage to the populace.

When the Keeper finally arrived, it was to witness the last of the zombies get blown away by the Staff of Wind, curtsy of Edward Richtofen the man wielding said staff. It didn't take long for the others to notice they were no longer alone, and were understandably surprised to see one of the self-proclaimed protectors of the universe amongst them.

Takeo immediately brought his fist to his cuirass. A gesture of respect.

"Keeper, I did not think you wourd be here, in this realm, after so rong." the Japanese man said.

" **I did not think I would return to this dimension, either. But someone had gotten the attention of the enemy."** the other-worldly being replied; then it looked to Dempsey and added. **"You know who he is."**

Dempsey exhaled with a solemn look on his face. "Yeah, Naruto." Nikolai, Takeo and Richtofen all looked at him with wide eyes. Did he just say- "It's been seven years since he went missing – no thanks to that damn teleporter. Any luck finding where he ended up?" the former marine didn't want to get his hopes up, but since this was a Keeper, he'll keep his faith in it.

His faith paid off; the Keeper nodded affirmatively.

" **Yes. I found him."** the being answered, and Dempsey almost fell to his knees in relief. **"He was in a dimension that was a carbon copy of this one; except from what I had seen, everyone was dead."**

"What!?"

" **Naruto Namikaze, was in a dimension where the dead ruled the land. When he summoned me, the young human was fighting off many of the walking dead. Even a she-dragon was summoned."**

Dempsey let out an awed whistle. "Fucking hell. And where is he now?" the man asked.

Richtofen nodded as he put most of his weight on to his staff of wind. "Indeed, I vunder if zis Naruto is similar to ze one ve use to know?"

"He's a carbon copy of him, Doctor. Doesn't curse as much though." Dempsey informed the German, before bringing his attention back to the Keeper. "So, where is he now? Did he escape?"

" **He is in Rabona. Has been for the past three days."**

"Can you bring us there?" Nikolai respectfully requested.

The Keeper nodded affirmatively. The four men exchanged looks for a brief moment before they grouped around the other-worldly being. Without a word the Keeper vanished along with Dempsey, Nikolai, Takeo and Richtofen.

X.X.X.X

"...And that is what a scrub is." Naruto 2 finished his explanation.

All he had got for his troubles were flat, befuddled and bemused looks.

Naruto 1 on the other hand, was soaking the information in like a sponge. "...So, it started off as something you would wear so blood would be easier to clean off. Then, it was turned into an insult for failing at doing something in general?"

"Pretty much."

"Oh." Naruto 1 felt...underwhelmed from the explanation. But, hey, he learned something new!

Then Helen gave him an amused look. "So... does that mean you're a 'scrub' outside of fighting?"

With a flat look on his face, Naruto 1 without looking at her, gave the woman the middle finger. Helen sniggered while Deneve was pinching the bridge of her nose, shaking her head in exasperation.

Then Helen cleared her throat and gave the blond her attention. "So now that we're out of trouble; where the hell have you been for the past seven years? And when did you get back?" she demanded with Deneve looking at her best friend oddly, she just saw her home-town get annihilated and is brushing it off?

"Would you believe me if I said he was in another world like this one?" the ghost asked with a raised finger.

Helen looked away from Naruto 1 and looked at the ghost. "I would say no, but since Deneve and I already been to a place like that, then I would be lying."

Both Naruto's looked at her questioningly for a moment, but only one of them managed to get it. "Oh yeah, I remember that! You, Deneve, Miria, Cynthia and Yuma and a few others, came to get me."

Naruto 2 exhaled in relief. "Well, that saves me from having to explain everything again." he said with a relieved smile.

"...Wait a minute!" Naruto 1 exclaimed all of a sudden. He looked at the bewildered ghost and said. "The last time I saw you, you were still in that ruined version of my home! How the hell are you here?"

"...Uh...magic?" Naruto 2 lamely offered.

Naruto 1 gave his ghost counterpart a flat stare. "...How gullible do you think I am?" he asked the ghost in the flattest tone anyone ever heard him use.

"Not very." Naruto 2 sighed and crossed his arms. "Alright, I got out the same way you did."

Naruto 1 tilted his head to the side and squinted at his counterpart suspiciously. "Really? How come I didn't see you?"

"I'm a ghost." said ghost deadpanned looking at the blond like he had said something incredibly stupid. "I can make myself invisible any time I want. Besides; since when does a ghost have to be solid?"

Then out of nowhere the Keeper reappeared in the occupied street with company. The four men holding mechanical staffs fell to a knee from disorientation. Only one of them was familiar to a certain few, while all four was known to one.

Nikolai dry heaved as he slowly stood back up. "Ugh. I feel like I will throw up!" he said with a grimace.

Dempsey stood up and would have stumbled if it weren't for him using the Staff of Lightning to balance himself. "If you're going to do that, make sure it's away from me."

Richtofen got up from his kneel too and held the side of his head. "Vell, zat vas something I vas not eager to re-experience." then the German noticed they were not alone. He grew wide eyed with fascination when he saw Miria'a silver eyes. "Oh. Vell zhis is new. How fascinating! I have never seen such eyes!"

Takeo who was silent for the most part was merely taking in his new surroundings. And the silver eyed women who were staring at them in bewilderment.

Only five of these silver eyed women recognised Dempsey though. Along with a certain ghost and blue eyed teenage boy.

"...'Tank'?"

Said man looked to the person calling his name, as did Nikolai, Takeo and Richtofen. And all four were shocked when they saw Naruto Namikaze and their own Naruto, the ghost Naruto, standing side by side.

Dempsey summed up what was on the mind of his companions. "...Holy shit! Kid? How in the hell are there two of you?"

With the revelation of seeing their Naruto – Naruto 2 – standing beside present Naruto side by side staring at them, suffice to say Dempsey and Takeo and Nikolai and Richtofen all had questions.

Naruto 2 who will be known as Primis-Naruto from hence forth, saw the look in their eyes. "Maybe it's best if we were to discuss this some place else." he suggested to then.

"Yes, that would be best!" Miria was quick to agree, having some place to talk away from prying eyes and ears would be the most ideal solution. It would give them ample time to strike up some questions as their own like where the HELL that thing came from!

It turned out many had the same idea as her since they were all for it. With the situation taken care of the soldiers were allowed to go home, those that were victimised by that creature were taken to a hospital to be cared for to the best of their ability.

X.X.X.X

Several minutes later everyone is back in the room Naruto is staying in, with a few more guests.

This time it was mainly the hybrids staying around.

"So care to tell me how you both managed to get back?" Miria asked first, as she looked at Helen and Deneve.

Deneve was the one to answer. "Naruto dragged us through... something. The next thing we knew, we were back here."

"That would be Ember's glyph. A dragon in case you don't know. She uses them as a method of quick travel." Naruto Namikaze clarified for everyone's benefit. A lot of the people in the room had already seen Ember.

"I see. And what about that... creature that appeared from it?"

"That would be a new type of yoma zombie." the present Naruto answered her. "I'm calling it armour-class for clarification."

"That thing was a yoma?!" everyone, except for the Primis group, shouted out in shock.

"Dunno what a yoma is; but that thing reminded me of Prototype." Primis Naruto said aloud, to the confusion of everyone who wasn't from his era.

"Proto-what?" Veronica asked.

"It's something back in my era. Nothing to worry about." the ghost replied dismissively.

Since Primis-Naruto was being totally unhelpful, Dempsey decided to explain it to her in the simplest way he can. "In simple terms: it's a game where you play as this... disease thing... that can kill people and absorb their memories. The more people you absorb, the stronger you get, and the stronger you get, the more difficult it is to kill you. Outside of that, it's way more complicated."

"I couldn't have said it better myself, Dempsey." Primis-Naruto told him, only to get a flat stare from the man in return.

"Then why didn't you?" he asked, with his voice matching the face.

"Couldn't think of a better explanation." Primis-Naruto replied with a shrug.

"You three have the most experience when it comes to fighting that thing." Miria said to Naruto, Helen and Deneve. "What can you tell us about it?"

Helen crossed her arms. "Its 'armour' is made of its own puss and blood."

"Naruto said the armour can be weakened by using fire against it. The armour falls apart after giving it a good enough hit once that happens." Deneve added with a shrug.

Then Naruto himself added. "From what I could tell, the holes in its armour are its weak points. So if you're unable to weaken the armour with fire then hitting it there is your best bet."

"Do you know anything on what it can do?" Cynthia asked.

Naruto nodded. "It can...absorb other armour-classes. That one you briefly saw was the result of it absorbing at least five or six of them. When it absorbs, it grows in height, and its armour gets denser and thick. But again, the holes are its weak points. They are never covered."

Primis-Naruto, Nikolai, Takeo, Dempsey, and Richtofen all exchanged concerned looks. That description was scarily familiar to them. A bit different from what they faced in the past but it was scarily similar.

"What do you guys think? Upgraded Thrashers?" The ghost asked them.

Takeo stroked his bearded chin. "It appears so." the man growled.

Dempsey and Nikolai both groaned in dismay, with the former pressing the bottom of his gauntleted palm against his forehead. "Great. The original Thrashers were bad; but if these things you're talking about, are successors to 'em..."

"...ve may have to take precautions vhen dealing vith zem." the German finished.

"...What are Thrashers?" Flora asked.

"Thrashers are zombies that were experimented on with plant life." Primis-Naruto told her.

Dempsey groaned as he brought down his hand. "Imagine a monster that is a combination of a zombie and a plant. The only way to effectively kill them was to destroy the spores on their body." he elaborated for them.

"They eat other zombies to recover lost spores. Was bitch to fight." Nikolai added on with a shrug.

Primis-Naruto then said with a grimace. "It didn't help they were strong either." there was a pause. "Well, strong for us anyway. Since you women aren't normal by any means, I'm not sure how strong it would be if you were to fight it."

Dempsey looked at Primis-Naruto with a confused, yet curious frown. "What makes you so sure about that kid?" he asked him.

Primis-Naruto sighed and met the look given to him head on. "C'mon 'Tank', they have silver eyes and no one has hair that pale. Not even me. And since this is the equivalent of the medieval ages those cannot be contact lenses."

"Vait, so vat are zey zen? Ze result of an experiment?"

Richtofen wasn't being completely serious about it. It was a rhetorically sarcastic, question.

"Basically...yes." Miria answered him.

The Primis group, excluding Primis-Naruto, all looked at Miria with wide eyes. Disbelief and shock was on their faces.

Richtofen open and closed his mouth repeatedly for several seconds, before he managed to find his voice. "I meant zat in jest. But... really?"

When Miria, along with several other silver eyed women in the room nodded Richtofen held the side of his head.

"The process we went through to become the way we are now, had given us abilities no other humans can possibly have." Flora added.

"Jesus Christ." Dempsey said after letting out a low whistle. "We're talking with actual super soldiers. We might have a better chance at fighting off the enemy than we initially thought."

"Ja, how vunderbar!"

"Huh. I wonder what they can do?" Primis-Naruto wondered aloud; he talked with them but never saw any in action.

"Helen can stretch her arm," Naruto Namikaze told them.

"Stretch? Like Mr. Fantastic?" Primis-Naruto again wondered aloud.

"Dunno who this... 'Mr. Fantastic' is. The names lame." Helen said nonchalantly with a bored look on her face as she walked to one end of the room. "But I can stretch my arms like so," she then stretched out one of her arms from across the room and proceeded to ruffle Naruto Namikaze's hair.

Said teenager didn't mind and was really disappointed when she stopped.

"Huh. Someone who can stretch her limbs. That's pretty damn cool." Dempsey complimented.

Helen grinned sheepishly as she rubbed the back of her head, but she otherwise didn't say anything.

Richtofen nodded in agreement and then said. "It vould be interesting if ze vere able to move faster zan ze eye could see."

Everyone gave Miria a subtle look. She did have a technique that enabled her to do just that after all.

"But what were the chances of that happening." Dempsey rhetorically said to the German. Then, with a sigh, the American said. "I'm just glad we didn't have to fight anyone with that power. We would have been killed five ways to Sunday if that were the case."

"There was a couple of zombies that were nigh invulnerable though." Primis-Naruto pointed out. "Now those were a bitch to deal with."

"Oh yeah..." Dempsey drawled out. "Those fuckers..."

Nikolai groaned. "You did not have to remind me of that, comrade."

"Such... unfairness was disheartening." Takeo said as he subconsciously clenched and unclenched his unoccupied fist.

"Zhose vere ze vorse...!" Richtofen groaned with a growl. "Vhy, vhy vould ze not stay down! Like zey vere meant too!?"

Everyone watched them with bemusement. Wow, this particular enemy must have been so bad if they were that pissed off at it.

"...You guys okay?" Naruto asked them. "...Should we be worried about this... invulnerable zombie?"

Dempsey sighed. "Yeah. We're fine. And no you don't. Those kind of zombies were wiped out during The Fall. They're not around anymore." well hopefully, because if they are then they have a problem.

Everyone let out a sigh of relief upon hearing that.

"So 'Tank', how come you're alive again?" Naruto asked the man. "Because the last time I saw you, you were a ghost."

Dempsey, Nikolai, Takeo and Richtofen all exchanged looks. Then they looked at Naruto and said simultaneously. "Monty."

Oh... well, that explained that.

"Ah. The mysterious man I met when I was 13-years-old." Naruto said with a nodding head. "I know Monty is the leader of the Keepers, but just what is he?"

Dempsey sighed. "Monty is... complicated, kid. He's basically the closest thing to a god – but the man would tell you otherwise."

That had gotten everyone to look at the American in disbelief. "Wait, if he's practically god then why can't he just... snap his fingers and deal with all of this?" Cynthia asked.

Dempsey sighed again. "In Monty's words: 'Freewill'." the man answered. "Why give us the freedom to choose... if he's going to meddle in every little thing we do?"

Seeing as they weren't convinced Primis-Naruto added his input. "Monty is well aware of the situation. But, the universe is a big place - and this isn't the only world the enemy is attacking. There is only so much he can do. And the Keepers, well, their war with the enemy left them weakened. They aren't as numerous as they use to be and even now they're still recovering." he told them.

"All in all it's a big cluster-fuck waiting to happen. He only gets involved when the situation has really gone FUBAR." Dempsey said, before looking at Naruto Namikaze.

"FUBAR?" Yuma asked.

"It stands for: Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition." the American explained to her and everyone else, before looking at Naruto Namikaze. "The fact he revealed himself to you... face to face... either the situation is worse than we thought or there's something about you that caught his attention all those years ago."

"I only met him once – that was after I lost my memory from the ages 7 to 12-years-old." the blond scratched the back of his head and grunted thoughtfully. "Now that I think about it, he told me to look for what I was good at; said it would be help me in the future." he looked at his FG-42 hanging from his waist. "I guess I did. I wonder if he knew I was going to be good at using firearms?"

"I think Doctor Monty alvays knew. He vorks in mysterious vays." Richtofen answered.

"Monty knows more than lets on." Nikolai stated, "If he talks is best to listen to him."

Then Helen recalled Naruto, their Naruto telling them he knew who the people who rescued from the Organization was. She looked at him.

"Naruto, you told us that you know who rescued you from the Organization all those years ago. Who were they?"

Hearing this question and being reminded of what had happened to him, everyone brought their attention to said blond. The only ones who didn't know what had happened to him was the Keeper and Nikolai, Takeo and Richtofen and Dempsey.

Naruto sighed. "I was hoping you would have forgotten that." he said, looking down at the floor and crossing his arms, "But, the cats out of the bag now I guess." the blond looked up again, "The people who rescued me was... well... me."

Everyone, except the Primis group who were contemplative, gave him an odd look.

"You... saved yourself?" Helen slowly asked.

Naruto nodded as he dampened his lip. "Yeah. It was the weirdest thing too. One of them was a carbon copy of me. He was around the same age as me too, the other was a zombie. But was in full control of himself."

The women were giving him looks of different levels of disbelief.

"Huh..."

They looked to the Primis Group, and found to their bewilderment, that they were actually thinking such a thing was real! But what was said next threw them all in for a loop!

"Alternate versions." Dempsey looked to Richtofen, "What do you think? It's happened before in the past."

"Ja, but ve vere normally ze cause of it." the German pointed out. "But for two other Naruto's to appear... und rescue him? It vould be unlikely but not impossible." then Richtofen looked at Naruto Namikaze and asked, "Vat did zey do once you vere rescued?"

Naruto recounted what he remembered on that day and what they told him. "They killed the men who were about to cut me open. Then they gave me a blood vial that had their blood in it, which you all saw me drink not too long ago. And there was a bunch of side effects. There was to many to remember though." he concluded with a shrug.

Everyone went silent at that, before they launched into a series of questions Naruto was hard pressed to answer.

X.X.X.X

One complicated mess of an explanation and interruptions later.

"Okay, let me recap..." Dempsey said before pointing at Naruto Namikaze. "You got a blood vial from two other Naruto's – one of whom was zombified, no less! - that if drunk could have potentially driven you insane?"

"Yeah. Pretty much." said blond confirmed.

Helen squinted at him in suspicion and asked, "How long did you have that vial on you?"

Naruto shrugged. "Near enough a decade. I'm not completely sure though." he answered her with complete honesty.

Seeing Helen was going to ask him why, Primis-Naruto spoke up. "The place he ended up is where time had no meaning. For all he knew, he was there for an eternity." the ghost shrugged nonchalantly. "It certainly felt like it in my case."

"Right..."

With that out of the way Naruto looked to Dempsey, Takeo, Nikolai and Richtofen. "So Monty brought you four back to life." it wasn't a question, it was a statement and they knew it.

Richtofen nodded confirmedly. "Ja. Ve even met him. Said things vere about to get vorse und ve needed to be alive."

Dempsey took over from there. "Good thing, too. The first thing Monty did after bringing me back to life, was to put me in a snowy battlefield that was almost overrun with zombies. I regrouped with Takeo, Richtofen and Nikolai shortly after since they were there kicking ass."

"The zombies were in the north..." Naruto started; the gears in his head were turning as he slowly looked to Helen. He didn't know where that town was but Helen and Deneve did.

Said blonde was having the same thoughts at him. "...And they were in the South." she added. Deneve and Helen exchanged looks before they looked at the Primis group.

"What are the chances other towns or, god forbid the other regions are being attacked?"

Dempsey, Nikolai, Takeo, and Richtofen all exchanged looks.

"Ze possibility is zere, und ze likelihood of it happening is high." the German finally answered as he looked at the women.

"The walking dead are thoughtless killing machine." Dempsey added on, "All they want to do is eat and eat and eat. And 9 times out of 10 those who fall prey to them, become a walking, eating corpse themselves."

"9 times out of 10?" Miria asked questioningly.

Being the one with the most experience, and knowledge on this subject, it was Richtofen that answered. "Zere are some people who are immune to Element One-fifteen. Ze vorse thing zat can happen to zem is having zheir memories viped und certain perts of zere personalities enhanced. Dempsey, Nikolai, Takeo und myself are such people zat are immune. Naruto Uzumaki – zat vould be our Naruto, vas immune too."

Naruto Namikaze looked at Primis-Naruto. "Uzumaki? It isn't Namikaze?"

Naruto Uzumaki shrugged. "It's both. Nikolai refers to me as Naruto Namikaze. But I was widely known as Naruto Uzumaki. It was my mother's surname. And my parents weren't married back then, and mum never got the chance to adopt dad's surname." he told his Namikaze counterpart.

"How come?"

The ghost shrugged again and shoved his hands in his pockets. "I was an orphan. Emphasis on 'was' because I'm dead now." he coughed into his fist, "Anyway, they died during the early stages of the Great War." he revealed. Sighing the blond rolled his shoulders and said. "I was barely a day old at the time and I have no clue on how I lived. But, after I was saved, I spent my childhood in a military facility, learning how to fight. Never had much time to... be a kid."

"Oh..." well that was awkward

Dempsey cleared his throat. "Anyway, given you're super soldier's, there's a small chance you're able to be infected."

"But we aren't able to get sick. We're practically immune to all types of deceases!" Helen pointed out.

"That would be true – but Element One-fifteen isn't your normal decease." Naruto Uzumaki/Namikaze countered. "It's not natural. It's not man made. It comes from beyond this planet. Anything that deals with One-fifteen, you can bet thousands of people and animals will die. But because of you being what you are, you're less likely to be infected by it. You women might be immune for all we know. But I'm pretty sure you're less likely to be affected."

Since they have the foremost experts when it comes to fighting these zombies, Miria asked. "Seeing as you fought the dead before, when can we expect them to arrive?"

"It depends on how far other regions you mentioned are. A month, maybe two." Nikolai answered her with a shrug.

"That short?" Flora said, surprised.

Nikolai snorted. "The dead have no need for rest, or sleep. They will keep moving until they are put down."

"And speaking of the dead," Dempsey started and looked to Naruto Uzumaki/Namikaze, "You wanna come with and take 'em down? It'll be like old times."

Said blond chuckled. "Sorry, 'Tank', my time in the world of the living has long passed. And besides," he looked at the other Naruto Namikaze. "there's already a Naruto here. And he is good at fighting the zombies himself. A little rough around the edges, but he is good."

The Primis group stared at Naruto Namikaze himself, they began to look considerate and thoughtful.

Well if their Naruto says the Namikaze is a good substitute.

Maybe they can take him on?

Unless he has other obligations.

X.X.X.X

The zombies were as Nikolai said: restless, tireless, and completely relentless. The hybrids who weren't in Rabona, had the unfortunate luck of running in large pockets of them. However, true to their super human/soldier status, the women were easily able to defeat large pockets of them as they wandered aimlessly through the regions.

They had a bit of trouble when it came to the Panzer Soldat's however. This was due to their thick armour, thrusters and their backpack that essentially allowed them to fly and cross great distances in a matter of seconds. Thankfully the Panzer Soldat's were far to few in numbers to be of any considerate trouble.

But if there were more than two, however, that is when they get into considerable trouble when it comes to fighting them and the zombies off at the same time.

In the Southern most region of Mucha, a small party of four women were finishing off a small party of zombies that had come south of Nile Village.

They're wearing the standard uniform of the Organization they used to work for: a two-piece, skin-tight cloth bodysuit and iron spaulders with two slots in the back for the standard-issue swords they wielded – the second slot was applied in case the wearer was left-handed, as the women were more specifically given two handed swords to use.

Aside from the shoulder pieces was a leather choker that bore their personal crests, a pair of vambraces, a pair of steel grieves, a steel fauld skirt, a cloth cape that served no purpose whatsoever, and absolutely nothing to protect anything of real importance... aside from their modesty.

These women are known as Dietrich, Violet, Lina and Noma. Formerly Numbers 8, 11, 14 and 22 in that order.

"Tch... where did these... things come from?!" Dietrich scowled in disgust as she stared at the bits and pieces of the rotting corpses.

Noma frowned as she looked to the North, ahead of her. "They must have come from Nile." she said before looking at Dietrich. "Should we go and check it out? Or report to Commander Miria?"

She didn't even need to think of the answer. "We go check it out." the woman replied, "If the village is intact we go check it out. If it's not... we fall back."

Violet, Lina and Noma all nodded in acceptance and followed after Dietrich. Several hours later the party of four find themselves on the outskirts of Nile Village. Dietrich grit her teeth as her silver eyed narrowed dangerously; the entire town was overrun with the walking dead. Even from here she can see the corpses shambling around aimlessly.

She steeled her heart. As much as she wanted to go in there and check for survivors, as much as she wanted to go and kill those walking abominations...

"Dietrich," Lina softly spoke up, "what should we do?"

When the woman didn't respond right away Noma added her input."We can remove every one of those... things, if given enough time." she said, "But perhaps retreating is the best option?"

"...we fall back." Dietrich finally answered before she turned around and walked in the opposite direction with Violet, Lina and Noma following her. "Commander Miria has to know about this."


	16. Chapter 16

Primis

Chapter 15

They did turn their backs on Nile Village. As much as Dietrich wanted to go in there and wipe out the dead, they had to make a tactical retreat. Here. Confident in the abilities of herself and her team she may be, but the woman is not stupid. Nile had a population of 1500 to 2000, and said village was due-in for an upgrade to a town because of said population.

They were but four women. Super humans they may be, they're still human. Even they can tire and make mistakes. Going in there without any backup poses a lot of risks and she is not willing to take any risks.

Violet realised something and she peered over her shoulder to look at Nile Village. "There was no one screaming. You don't think everyone's..."

"Let's not think about it." Lina told her.

Noma nodded in agreement. "Yes. Let's not."

They all came to an abrupt stop and looked off to their right upon hearing an inhuman howl that sounded like a mixture of a tortured and highly aggravated wolf. They exchanged looks for a moment, before Violet, Lina and Noma all looked to Dietrich expectantly. Being the leader of this party, they'll defer to her choices and decisions.

"We keep going." Dietrich told them, as she knew what they were thinking. "The quicker we get back to Commander Miria, the faster we can form some kind of response team."

With that said the women started running at a fast pace back to Rabona. The howling got closer and closer with each passing minute, however, and they all quickly deduced they were being followed by whatever was making those noises.

They were surprised when a thick fog rolled in. It was sudden, its appearance; it just showed up out of nowhere. The air around them lowered in temperature, it became chilling, near winter like. But because of how they were made, the four women were not affected by it at all.

The howl was heard again. Dietrich, Violet, Lina and Noma went into a tight formation with their claymores drawn out by one hand.

That was when they saw it, a pair of orange glowing eyes that seemed to just appear from within. Followed by another, and another, and another, until they were encircled on all sides by over ten of these creatures. The fog to thick for them to make out any defining features of these abominations.

However, there was one clue: the animalistic growl they could hear from one of them. It was almost a canine, no it was a canine. Wild dogs, perhaps?

Then they made a disgusted face and gagged when their nostrils was assaulted by the smell of decay and iron.

It was then Violet saw the fog in her direction disperse slightly; it was just enough for the woman to see what they were up against.

"Oh, god..." she cringed, disgust shown all over her face.

"What is it?" Dietrich demanded, anything to make the former No. 11 like that, had to be bad.

"It looks like whatever killed the residence of the Nile Village can spread to animals too." the woman answered, sounding as if she were resisting the urge to gag. "We are surrounded by wolves and wild dogs. Most of them are in a state of decay; some look fresh, only a few hours old at most and others appear to have been dead for a few days at least." she added on in conclusion. She could see the maggots infesting the bites and chunks of missing skin on these animals.

Dietrich narrowed her eyes in determination. "Whatever these things are, they do not use yoki." the others knew that as well, whatever these things, these unnatural abominations, are they are not yoma. It was like something out of old stories, where the underworld is so full, the dead themselves will start to rise and roam the earth. "Engaging them in this fog would be foolish. They don't seem to be smart, so, wait for the fog to clear up a little, and then engage them. If they attack first, then deal with them. Seeing as they're not yoma we'll be able to take care of them without using yoki." the former No. 8 told them.

Violet, Lina and Noma all nodded; it may not be the best plan, but given their circumstances fighting these things in this thick fog, separated from everyone else would be stupid...

And so, the silver eyed women stood in the fog, back to back in a good old' fashioned stand-off with their new undead enemy. They waited for the wolves and wild dogs to make their moves, and vice versa.

It was the wolves and wild dogs that broke the stand-off first. With a loud, tortured and agonising howl, the canines leapt into the fray.

With narrowed eyes and an otherwise stoic face, Dietrich, Violet and Lina and Noma held the grip of their claymores with both hands and when the animals came within sword range, the women started slicing and dicing at them without moving from their spot.

All four of them were moving their claymores so fast the canines have not been able to react in time. Before they even knew what had happened, they were already on the ground, sliced and diced into several large and chunks.

Neither women had moved in the short-lived engagement, nor did they get their uniforms dirtied by the blood of the canines. One wolf howled to the skies; it was as if a switch had been flipped, because the second that wolf howled, the rest quickly retreated back into the fog. Which dispersed into the atmosphere moments later.

The silver eyed women all carefully scanned their surroundings. A plain of green lands, plains and mountains the Region of Mucha may be, but give how the fog just flat came out of nowhere, the women knew they could not take any chances when it came to this new enemy. The fog appeared and they came along with it not to long afterwards, and when the canines left, the fog went away with them.

Once she was sure the coast was all clear, Dietrich put her claymore back in its slot. Violet, Lina and Noma did the same. Then they proceeded to Toulouse, where the Holy City of Rabona is, with haste in their step.

X.X.X.X

 _Meanwhile, located at the border between Lautrec and Toulouse..._

Another group of silver-eyed women were busy killing a small army of 200 zombies. Audrey former No. 3, Rachel former No. 5, Nike former No. 15, Clarissa former No. 18 were the same uniform as Dietrich and her party.

The zombies were falling to them in doves as they mindlessly tried to attack them. However, Audrey, Rachel, Clarissa and Nike were swinging their claymores quickly; it was so fast a normal human would have a lot of trouble following.

Entire groups of the walking dead were being reduced to bloody chunks of flesh, bone and muscle in a matter of seconds. And more kept on becoming those chunks as they kept running at them relentlessly. Being at the speed of normal humans however, the silver-eyed women were able to keep to keep themselves one step ahead of the dead.

"Well, one thing's for certain when it comes to these things: they're dumb as fuck!" Rachel exclaimed, a wide and menacing grin was on her lips. The woman let out a battle cry as she sliced a zombie in twain, from head to groin and followed it with two fast slashes that cut it in half again in two places: the chest and thighs.

Audrey smiled, chuckling in amusement at her friend's enthusiasm. She leapt up and flipped over two zombies, and slashed and diced them while she was in mid-air. Their upper bodies were reduced to a bloody mess, while the rest of them fell to their knees and onto their front. Landing in a kneel the woman swiped her sword, slicing off the legs of other zombies by their knees.

Another swipe from Audrey had the blade cut through the side of their heads to the other side. They face-planted and the reason for this is revealed; the top of their skull, along with half of their brains, just below their eyebrows slid off and onto the ground.

"Yes, it seems these things lack intelligence." Audrey agreed. as she gracefully stood back up. twirling her claymore effortlessly with one hand. She smiled serenely as the zombies converged on her, only for them to fall to the ground with their heads lopped off. Curtsey of Nike and Clarissa who suddenly appeared in-front of her.

"They may be stupid but they have numbers on their side." Nike said before bringing her plated boot up and stomping on the head of one of the legless zombies Audrey had missed. "Persistent little fuckers too." she added with a scowl of disgust.

More zombies were chopped to pieces, curtsey of Clarissa who was scowling in disgust. The smell was horrid! But she put up with it. "Where on earth did they come from anyway?" she asked, before slicing and dicing several more. "They just showed up out of nowhere!"

"We can wonder about that, after we kill these fucking things!" Rachel said in exclamation; with a yell she leapt up in the air, claymore raised above her head, and brought it down on a zombie as gravity took hold. She cleaved the walking corpse in twain, and sliced off the heads of three more zombies. She took regrouped with her comrades' and looked at the remaining corpses still relentlessly running towards her and the others.

They were impeded a bit by the bits and pieces of the diced and sliced corpses. And the walking dead was beginning to thin out too. Audrey squinted her eyes as she took in the amount of bodies left in their wake. They had managed to kill a near quarter of the small army. That's good. If they kept this up, this small army of running, shambling corpses would be dealt with in an hour or less.

In Audrey's mind this is a good thing – if they are able to take them out, here and now, then they would be able to report to Commander Miria in Rabona. She had to know of this, immediately.

She took a deep breath, steeled her eyes, and rushed into the fray. Many zombies suddenly had blood spraying from their bodies, before bits and pieces of them fell to the ground.

Rachel, Nike and Clarissa followed their Captains example. The inhuman cries of the damned, and the doomed, echoed for a mile. But would, ultimately, go on unheard.

X.X.X.X

Back in Rabona, one day later.

It was midday in the Holy City and Naruto was by himself, sitting on the roof of the building he was staying in for the moment.

"Nervous, are we young Namikaze?"

Said blond almost jumped out of his own skin at the unexpected question from Takeo. Unexpected, because the sixteen-year-old was distracting himself by looking out at the horizon. Turning, Naruto was not at all surprised to see the man was not out of his crusader armour. He had his currently inactive Staff of fire strapped to the back of the cuirass he was wearing.

"A little, yes." with a dampening of his lip Naruto returned to looking out at the horizon. "I..." he began, only to stop with a sigh.

Takeo took a seat beside the teenager and looked out at the horizon with him. "Go on." he prompted; the man knew there was something on the young man's mind.

Naruto sighed again. "I just... don't see how your Naruto, thinks I would be good enough to help you. I'm no soldier." he told the man in admittance.

Takeo chortled with amusement as he sat down beside the teenager. "Berieve it or not, but Richtofen is not a sorider."

Naruto looked at him with wide eyes. "He's not?"

"No. Richtofen is what you would carr... a researcher." the man revealed, "When the enemy appeared so rong ago, Richtofen had no combat experience whatsoever. Then he found me, Nikorai was next and Dempsey was rast. Young Uzumaki did not become affricted with us untir much rater. And when we found him he was around your age, perhaps a little younger. He was skirred with his weapons but he had no combat experience. Not unrike us."

Naruto stared ahead of him, as he creased his brow in deep thought. "So... you took Uzumaki and got him some experience in fighting?" the teenager asked as he looked back at the man beside him.

Takeo nodded confirmedly. "Yes. That was why he said what he did. You arready have the experience in fighting the herrspawn. You are in a much better position than he was, when we first found him and made him into what he is today."

Naruto after hearing all of that, suddenly became inspired. The blond looked at Takeo and asked. "Is it possible for you to teach me?"

Takeo thoughtfully stroked his bearded chin before looking at the teenager. "It depends. What areas are you racking most in?" the man asked him.

"Well..." Naruto started; he held out his right hand and to Takeo's astonishment Ancients Wrath manifested itself in his palm. "I have this..."

"Ancients Wrath..." Takeo muttered in disbelief. Hearing him name his sword Naruto looked at the man with surprise, who chuckled at the look he was giving him. "Yes. I know the name of your sword. It is not the first weapon of the Ancients I have encountered."

When Takeo made a seemingly innocent gesture to his staff weapon, Naruto took a look at it. And look at it he did. The blond narrowed his eyes with suspicion. "Your staff is a weapon of the Ancients, isn't it?"

"Indeed, it is, young Namikaze." Takeo looked at his staff from across the shoulder. "It was gifted to us during the finar battre of the Ord Worrd. Once the war for our worrd was over, and everything had to be rebuirt, Dempsey, Nikorai, Richtofen and myself have kept them in our possession ever since. Even to our graves."

With that explanation given Takeo gave the blond an expectant look. For for said look to turn to confusion, and then bewilderment upon seeing the mechanical European sword, getting swapped out for Wrath of the Ancients; a bow that was made of bone and a mysterious adhesive.

"Another weapon of the Ancients... The Wrath of the Ancients. A weapon I have not seen for years! You, young Namikaze, are furr of surprises." his decision made Takeo nodded to himself and stood him. "Yes. With these, I berieve, there are some things I- no, we, can teach you." Takeo held out his hand for the blond to take, and take it Naruto did.

"What's first?" Naruto asked as Takeo pulled him to his feet.

"Finding Nikorai, Dempsey and Richtofen." Takeo told him and with Naruto giving him a confused look, the man elaborated. "While they may not be as skirred as myserf, when it comes to the brade, they are adapt with it. The same goes for us using Wrath of the Ancients."

"I can get behind that." the blond said as he dismissed his bone bow.

With that said Naruto and Takeo both got down from the roof and went on their way to locate the rest of the Primis Group. The former followed after the latter since the older man was the one leading.

"So where are the others?" Naruto asked the older man.

"They are outside the city warrs." Takeo answered, he pointed at the Staff of Fire with his thumb adding. "Our weapons are... not to be used within crosed spaces. Too destructive."

Well that certainly explained why they were heading to the city walls. And it made a whole lot of sense too now that he thought about it. He may not know what the staves are capable of but he had a feeling they were very dangerous to use in enclosed spaces. And it wasn't because Takeo said they were. Naruto really thought if the staffs were used indoors, then the entire building would either collapse on top of their heads or something more disastrous, like starting a city-wide fire.

Near an hour later Takeo and Naruto were finally outside of the city walls. Naruto saw Dempsey, Nikolai and Richtofen were standing in a semicircle, and like Takeo had their staffs slung on their backs. They didn't notice their approach as they were far into their discussion, that the blond had managed to hear the end of.

"...ombies are heading here?" Dempsey asked Richtofen partially through his question.

"Ze likelihood of zem coming here is likely." the German answered.

"Not very likely? Not certain?" Nikolai questioned.

Richtofen shook his head no. "Nein. You remember ze undead are mindless creatures. Zey vill be here, but not anytime soon." the German let out a frustrated sigh. "Really ze realistic time of zere arrival here is a mere month or two. Ve have time to prepare but it is not long."

Richtofen, Dempsey and Nikolai looked to Takeo and Naruto when the former made themselves known.

"This city has sordiers protecting its warrs. They arso have numbers on their side, but as far as we know they do not have the suppries to rast a siege for more than a month."

"And we have possible refuges heading here too." Nikolai sighed.

Takeo nodded as he and Naruto stood with the group. "And what is worse: many of them may be infected."

"Hey, kid." Dempsey greeted Naruto Namikaze, with Richtofen and Nikolai both sending a nod of acknowledgement his way. "What brings you out here with Takeo?"

"I have taken it upon myserf to train young Namikaze in the ways of the brade." Takeo answered the man in Naruto's stead.

THAT got the men to fully turn around to look at the Asian in bewilderment and surprise. He's actually taking on an apprentice? This soon after being revived?

Dempsey exchanged looks with both Russian and German men. Then he looked back towards' Takeo and questioningly asked. "I'm not arguing, or insulting both you or the kid, Tak – but I gotta ask: why?"

"Young Namikaze, has both Ancients Wrath and Wrath of the Ancients in his possession."

To prove Takeo Masaki was not lying to them at all, Naruto held his right arm out and watched the expressions on the faces of Dempsey, Nikolai and Richtofen turn from skeptical to wide eyed disbelief, when they saw both weapons materialise in the palm of his hand.

"Holy shit; weapons of the Keepers..." Dempsey exhaled. Then he gave the blond a look. "Where the hell did you find them?"

Naruto shrugged cluelessly as he willed the Bone Bow away. "You're guess is as good as mine. I have no idea where they came from." the blond revealed to the men; he frowned thoughtfully as he thought back to when the other Naruto's busted him out of that facility. "Though I have a suspicion; I never had these weapons before. The only time I found out about them was one month after the other Naruto's rescued me from getting cut open."

"Really?" Richtofen asked and when the teenage boy nodded Richtofen rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "I believe zey must have given zem to you vithout you knowing." the German theorised.

"I'm thinking that myself." Naruto said; then he gave Richtofen, Dempsey and Nikolai a hopeful look as he crossed his arms. "So, do you think you can help me?"

The men exchanged looks again and with a nonchalant shrug Dempsey gave Naruto a smirk. "Why the hell not. I'm not an expert like Takeo, but having to fight thousands of zombies did force me to adapt. I'm sure you can pick up a few things me from me."

"Eh. I will give pointers. Not as good at using sword. Bow on other hand is more within my limits." Nikolai said with a nonchalant shrug.

"I vill help vhere I can." Richtofen promised the blond.

Takeo nodded in approval at gaining the aid of his comrade in arms. Then he turned to face Naruto and grasped the hilt of his katana and slowly pulled it out of its scabbard. Nikolai, Dempsey and Richtofen all made space for the man and teenager and watched on in silence, as Naruto with prompting from Takeo, brought Ancients Wrath back out again.

"What kind of sword is that?" Naruto asked as he and Takeo took a stance. Takeo with his sword held up, horizontally above his shoulder with the tip pointing forward. Naruto had Ancients Wrath in the middle, with the hilt held to the side in front of his hip and had the tip of the sword pointing at Takeo's chest.

"That is a katana." Dempsey answered.

Takeo went into more detail however. "A Muramasa brade to be exact. It has been in my famiry for generations. Rong ago, the smith who created these brades, was said to be viorent and irr-baranced. It was said those traits was passed onto his brades due to their sharpness. So very rong ago, they were berieved to hunger for brood and imper their warrior to commit murder or suicide. Not anymore however, as the Muramasa brades have been forgotten to time."

Then Takeo took a step forward and made a single thrust at Naruto. Naruto took a step back and parried the straight forward attack. Takeo quickly recovered and took a similar stance to Naruto, holding the sword in the middle with the hilt held in front of his stomach and the tip pointing at Naruto's neck.

Takeo took a step forward and jabbed and slashed at Naruto who in turn did his best to dodge or parry the slashes and jabs. Then Takeo withdrew and skilfully twirled his katana with one hand before grabbing the hilt with both hands once more.

"Good refrex, reaction time is good as werr." Takeo complimented the blond as he and Naruto began to circle one another.

"I'm sensing a 'but' coming up." the blond stated as he took the time to regain his breath.

Takeo let out an amused chuckle. "'But', your stance is rigid. Stiff. The grasp on your sword is to tight. Roosen it, arrow your muscres to rerax and you wourd be abre to react quicker." the man told the much younger and less experienced blond.

Naruto took Takeo's advice and allowed his body to relax a little. Then he went on the offensive and tried to slash from the left and right sides. Takeo easily deflected both slashes and went on the offensive, forcing Naruto to defend himself from the man's attack.

Naruto dashed to the left, Takeo dashed to the right, both were well within reach of each other. Then the the latter swiftly brought his katana above his head before bringing it down, the former likewise responded in a similar matter, by bringing his long sword up to meet the sharp end of the katana midway.

Takeo and Naruto both ended up in a deadlock where the former was slowly making the blond's knees buckle from the man's superior strength. Naruto bared his teeth and as his arms trembled from the seemingly overwhelming force Takeo was putting in. With a growl the blond pushed back and broke out of the deadlock; Naruto took several steps back and regained his bearings. Takeo on the other hand, had a stoic look on his face as he casually circled the blond, who turned in place to face him.

The man was good Naruto had to admit. He wasn't taking him seriously, and while a lot of people would be pissed off at not being taken seriously at all, the blond was quite glad for it. The man was teaching him after all. There was no need to beat him into the ground. Not yet at least.

"He's doing pretty good." Dempsey said as Takeo and Naruto went back to slicing and dicing each other.

"Yes. Naruto is improving as well. Is slow going but is improving." Nikolai added with a look of approval. Then he, Dempsey and Richtofen all flinched when Takeo kicked Naruto in the stomach causing the blond to stagger back from the sheer unexpectedness of it.

"That has to hurt." Dempsey said in sympathy, watching as Naruto sidestep as Takeo purposely overextended his lunge. The blond grabbed Takeo's gauntlet, and pulled the older man with his momentum before turning and throwing him away.

Takeo and Naruto both took their stances again, before they re-engaged their swordplay.

This would continue for a few hours.

X.X.X.X

When they were finished a heavily breathing Naruto sitting on the ground, exhausted. His sword arm was so tired it felt like jelly and his legs were shaking from the amount of moving and enduring they had to go through.

An out of breath Takeo twirled his Muramasa katana for the last time, before placing it back into its scabbard.

"You fought werr, young Namikaze." Takeo complimented the blond, as he too took a seat on the ground with a tired grunt. The man didn't realise how tired his legs were until he planted his ass on the ground.

"T-thanks." Naruto replied, as he caught his breath, the blond looked at the more experienced swordsman and asked. "So, what's the verdict? Do I need to work in that?"

Takeo grunted as he brought one knee up and rest his arm on it. "Yes. You are stirr inexperienced when it comes to the use of a brade." the man answered and added as a word of advice. "Doing this wourd increase your skirrs, and experience."

"The man knows what he's talking about kid." Naruto looked at Dempsey who sat on the ground followed by Nikolai and Richtofen. The American casually pointed at the city and said. "Hell, those silver eyed women with claymores would tell you the same thing."

"You may know how to use sword," Nikolai said to the blond. "but you do not know 'how' to use sword." he added with an extra emphasis on the second "how" word.

"In other words: you know how to hold a sword, but you don't know how to use it." Dempsey said for clarification, since the man felt Nikolai wasn't being explanatory enough.

"Of course, I do," countered Naruto, "you stick 'em with the sharp end, right?" his answer got a chortle out of Dempsey and Nikolai an amused smile from Richtofen and an exasperated sigh from Takeo. "What? I'm not wrong." the blond told them.

"True. You're not wrong." Dempsey agreed.

"There is more to 'sticking people with sharp end'." Nikolai said as he crossed his arms. "But is how most people are dispatched." he then added with a nonchalant shrug. He couldn't fault Naruto for thinking that way, since it is the most common way people tend to die. By being impaled and ran through, or getting a deep gash across the stomach that would leave you to bleed out.

"This is kinda random," Dempsey started, prompting everyone else to look at him with curiosity. "but if there's one thing I miss from our time period it has to be sports."

Takeo chortled at the random topic, but was grateful for it. "Ah. Cuju. How I miss it. If onry there was a way to pray it again." he said reminiscently.

"Now that you mention it, wasn't that supposed to be the earliest form of football or something?" Dempsey asked the Asian; he had been told through word of mouth that China had practically invented the sport, since it dated all the way back in to the 2nd to 3rd century or something.

He knew it was still being played before the Second Human-Apothicon war that all but destroyed the Old World. But Dempsey has no idea if the sport even existed in this time period. He's betting on it not being known.

"It was." Takeo confirmed. "I wourd not mind praying footbarr either however."

"I like sport you called 'Dodgeball'." Nikolai admitted, he chuckled as he added. "get hit on ankle and you're out. Good at testing one's awareness and stamina."

"Dodgeball vas a favourite of mine as vell." Richtofen admitted with a reminiscent look on his face. "Football, I once dabbled in. Vas not good at it. But dodgeball vas more my favourite."

"I liked baseball. I had one hell of a throwing arm too. And if I wanted to, I could have gone pro; but the military was my calling. I did dabble in football as well with the force when I was off duty." Dempsey revealed to them.

"Back home, when I was younger, I used to play catch with my sisters called Mine and Fuyu when I was four years old." Naruto revealed to them; then he let out a nostalgic sigh. He missed those days, back when they were all a family. "We had to play it by using a small, smooth stone that would be tossed between us."

"Catch, eh?" Dempsey mused aloud. "Seems that game stayed around after all this time." the man let out a quiet yawn and looked around the environment for a moment. "I wouldn't mind playing catch to be honest."

Naruto looked at their environment as well and said. "Well there's plenty of rocks lying about." he looked at the dark-haired man. "Want help finding a good one?"

"Sure."

X.X.X.X

Meanwhile in Rabona, Helen was wandering the streets by herself. The woman was wondering where Naruto and the Primis Group had gotten off to. Neither of them were seen for hours and she was getting a little worried. Deneve was beside her, looking bored and unbothered, but Helen knew better. The way her eyes would quickly dart from left to right, the worried drumming of her fingers on her arm.

Her best friend was worried as well.

Then Deneve sighed and went off in a random direction, prompting Helen to stop walking and look at her questionably.

"Deneve? Where are you going?" the woman asked her.

Deneve held up a hand with one finger raised. Helen understood immediately and watched in silence as her friend began asking people in the area about Naruto and the wayward Primis group. A couple of people pointed to the city walls and Deneve nodded her head in thanks, before making her way back to Helen.

At her friend's expectant look Deneve said. "The last time they saw them, they were heading to the city walls. So, chances are they're on the battlements or they're outside."

"Oh! Then what're we waiting for? Let's go!" with a cheer Helen started walking over to the city gates with a more cheerful disposition out into it.

Sighing with exasperation showing on her face, Deneve shook her head before following after her. She couldn't help but let a small smile pull at her lips in amusement at the way her friend was acting, before wiping it off her mug before anyone could see it.

When they got outside the city the two hybrids took a quick look around. It didn't take them long to find the wayward group. They were a fair distance out – 20 yards. One was sitting on the ground, watching as Naruto casually tossed and caught an object being thrown to each other.

Curious the women made their way over to them and the closer they got the better they could hear them talk, and see what they were tossing to each other.

"...only game you have back home?" they heard Dempsey ask.

"Yeah." they heard Naruto answer. The blond caught the stone, a pebble from its size, and tossed it to Nikolai as he added. "I wonder if there's a way to make a football or something. I think playing with that would be really fun."

"Dodge ball or football?" Dempsey asked catching the pebble tossed to him by Nikolai before passing it on to Richtofen.

"Why not both?" the blond casually answered, catching the pebble next and passing it back to Nikolai, who proceeded to toss it to Dempsey.

"Good point." Dempsey replied with a shrug; he proceeded to toss the pebble to Richtofen. The German caught the pebble with one hand, and tossed it back to Naruto.

As they stared on in bemusement Helen leaned to her friend and asked in a low tone. "...Deneve, what are they talking about?"

Said woman shrugged in befuddlement. "I... think they're talking about a game? I dunno." she answered; both Deneve and Helen exchanged looks.

Looking back at Naruto and the other men Helen walked over and asked aloud, "What are you all doing?"

They were unsurprisingly startled; Naruto looked at Helen and completely missed catching the pebble that landed at his feet. The blond quickly recovered from his surprise and as Naruto grabbed the pebble he replied. "We're playing catch and talking about stuff."

"Really?" Helen said in an inquiring tone. While she's not all that serious in talking and stuff the woman could see an opportunity to ask questions or get information when she saw one. The short-haired woman came to a stop beside her fellow blond and looked to the other men. "Can Deneve and I join?" she requested.

"Sure, the more the merrier." Dempsey answered.

Nodding in thanks Helen and Deneve joined the semicircle; the former looked around curious as to what to do. "So how does this work?" she asked with a look of expectation.

Nikolai was the one to answer. "We talk about whatever you want." there was a moment of silence as he caught the pebble Naruto tossed to him. "Within reason of course." he added, just before he tossed the pebble to Richtofen.

"Alright," Helen paused momentarily to catch the pebble in befuddlement; she looked around, unsure of what to do next, before she tossed it to Naruto. "I know you told me and Deneve about your family Naruto back in Pieta. But it's been like 7 years since then. Can you refresh my memory?"

Not seeing any harm in that Naruto agreed. "Alright. My dad is the leader of my town and a war hero. My mum's a former commander and a war hero herself." he said before passing the small, and smooth stone to Deneve after looking at her. After that he continued, "I have two sisters - named Mine and Fuyu – who are commanders in the military as well. They're well known where I came from."

"And you were the odd one out of them. I remember that." Helen said with remembrance showing on her face. "It was because you weren't... good at anything, right? Your failure to meet their expectations?"

"Yeah. Pretty much." the blond answered.

"Do you hate your parents for selling you to the Organization?" Deneve asked after tossing the pebble back to Naruto.

Naruto took a moment to think to himself; his experiences in that horror filled mirror dimension of his home had given him... perspective. Everything that happened to him had caused the blond to re-think on his life's choices.

And he came to a realization, that had gone forgotten, up until now...

"...No. I don't hate them. I'm angry to the degree of wanting to punch them either in the face or stomach; but I don't hate them. Not anymore at least." Naruto finally answered as he tossed the pebble to Richtofen.

With each question being asked by Helen and Deneve, the more the group got to know the youngest of the Namikaze siblings. This would keep for a while longer until they realise they were outside of Rabona's walls for the better part of the day.

As the old saying goes: time flies when you're playing games.


	17. Chapter 17

Primis

Chapter 16

"Well, that was fun!" a cheerful, but slightly irritated, Helen said with enthusiasm.

"It was... different." Deneve said agreeably; it was a very different from what she was expecting. The woman couldn't remember the last time she just, relaxed and played a very simple easy to get into game like the one she just had.

They even learned a few things about the Primis Group! Takeo, Nikolai and Dempsey were all soldiers of different nationalities.

Takeo Masaki is a former Officer of Japan's Self-Defence Forces.

'Tank' Dempsey is a former Corporal of the United States Army.

Nikolai Belinski is a former Sargent of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.

And finally, Richtofen was a lead-field scientist of a mysterious organization called Group 935. An Organization that was now defunct.

Helen, Deneve and Naruto understood the first three were soldiers, similar to the ones who are protecting Rabona, but they were on a completely different scale. Understandable, since they were from a time where travelling the world was so simple - in their eyes at least.

They didn't learn anything else other than that; it had to be pointed out to Helen, there was no point in learning more about their former organizations as they no longer exist. They were part of an era long gone.

Suffice to say that made her a little irritated. She had been so eager to know more about the Old World. In the end though the woman relented.

"So now that... you-know-what is back, what are you four going to do?" Naruto asked the four men purely out of curiosity.

"They're not 'back' per say." Dempsey replied. "It's just the foot soldiers. There's still a chance for us to beat them back before they get a permanent foot hold here. In the other dimensions we went too, there was only zombies – a fuck load of them, but they were nothing we couldn't handle. So far we didn't run into a Margwa. So that's a good thing."

"I did." Naruto said; the Primis group all stopped at looked at the blond with wide eyes. Being completely aware of the looks they were giving him Naruto added. "But that was seven years ago. I haven't ran into a Margwa since then."

Hearing that the rightfully paranoid men all exhaled in pure relief. For a moment Richtofen thought the fight against the Apothicons would have gotten harder. But if the Margwa's – the heavy hitters – didn't show up after all this time, then they were in a much better position to fight back.

Helen put her hands behind her head and interlocked her fingers. "Well, it's good to know we got a chance to stop this before it can really begin." Naruto gave the woman a momentary glance and nodded in agreement with her.

"As long as they're here on this continent then we have a chance at containing this plague." Naruto murmured; the men and women around him heard what he said and were in full agreement with him.

If the zombies were just restricted to this island, and let's be honest, they're not the sharpest tool in the shed, then wiping them out would be a lot easier to do than say... them being world wide. It was what nearly made them lose the second Human-Apothicon war – they weren't prepared on how fast the infection was. The second you were bitten then 9 times out of 10 you were finished.

But this outbreak was manageable.

"I wonder how we're going to deal with this outbreak?" Naruto wondered musingly. He wasn't all that confident to be honest; out of everyone in this world – excluding the Primis group – he had the most experience when it comes to fighting the zombies.

Dumb and mindless the walking corpses may be, they are are easily taken out if there's a low number of them. But put them in a large party of over 50 and then they're no joke. If you get cornered by them, and they're swarming you from all sides, then you're fucked.

Getting ripped apart fucking hurt! The blond didn't know what was worse, burning to death or getting torn to shreds.

Helen casually put an arm around his shoulder, and the blond let out a startled grunt when the woman pulled him to her. She grinned down at him mischievously, sniggering as she ran her gloved hand through his hair. Off to the side Deneve could only shake her head at the antics of her best friend. The woman had a small smile though.

"C'mon, you have us! We'll beat them back." Helen cheered with enthusiasm.

"You're literal super soldiers," Naruto blandly pointed out. "You're going to have no problems beating them back either way. Considering I died to them 28 times... and almost did die for real a few days ago, I'm not so confident in us normies."

"To be fair, you were alone there." Dempsey countered.

Naruto gave the older man a questioning look. "How did you know I was alone?" he never told them that, so how did he know?

"The Keeper." the American answered; after that Naruto didn't ask for more information. Given the Keeper is a protector of the universe, that reveal had told him everything he needed to know.

"But back to the point," Naruto said. "I've been in that place for like... four decades or something, I don't know. So trust me when I say, that the walking dead are no joke if they're high in numbers. Besides, do I need to remind you of that zombie you and Deneve saw when we first met?"

"...No. That thing was admittedly hard to kill." Helen admitted with a bitter taste in her mouth.

"Mainly because of it being able to appear and disappear at will." Deneve added.

Teleporting; it was the most bullshit of abilities she ever had the pleasure of encountering. Miria moved so fast it was like she had teleported from one spot to another. But that zombie yoma... its power was on a whole other level.

"Right. So you can't think they're going to be easy, since there's a very high possibility there is going to be that type of zombie among them." then he shuddered and leaned against Helen. "Besides', there was that mutated fucker who almost killed me for real too. We're going to have to deal with that thing again, eventually." the blond exhaled sharply.

"I'm just glad we have a Keeper on our side. And that dragon too." Deneve said aloud; then she frowned thoughtfully as a thought came to mind and looked to Naruto for an answer as she asked. "Speaking of them, where are they? I thought they would have stuck around a bit more?"

"Ember is running damage control, and is trying to kill as many zombies as possible before they get here. And as for the Keeper," the blond stopped momentarily and took a deep breath and yawned at the same time. "it's looking for its brethren to try and give us some back up. Not sure how long it's going to take it to get back though. The Keepers aren't as numerous as they used to be."

That had gotten him more than a few looks; and then Naruto yelped in pained discomfort when Helen got him in a headlock. "Why did you wait to tell us this now?!" she yelled at him.

This action had gotten everyone in the vicinity to look on in bewilderment at this curious sight. An irritated looking Claymore head locking someone, while another palmed her face in dismay and embarrassment at their antics.

The Primis group looked on, bemused more than anything.

"A lot of things happened!" Naruto quickly cried out when her grasp on him got tighter and tighter and more uncomfortable, "I forgot!"

Seeing his discomfort Deneve sighed, and raised her hand. Helen yelped in surprise when she felt her best friends' hand whipping across her scalp and reflexively let go of Naruto to rub her now sore head.

"Thanks, Deneve."

Said woman gave him a nod, as if to say 'don't worry about it'. And then Helen straightened herself and put her arm back around Naruto's shoulders, acting as if nothing had happened.

"So, if your dragon friend does find more zombies for you to fight, whatcha gonna do?" the short haired woman asked. Helen knew, from Miria, that the Primis group are heroes of the Old World. They had fought the enemy – the Apothicons – and even though they had won, it had come at a great cost. Them going to confront the walking dead is a damn certainty.

Naruto on the other hand... both Helen and Deneve had a feeling on what his answer was going to be.

"I'm gonna go and fight them of course."

Yep. That was what they were expecting from him.

X.X.X.X

It took them nearly an entire week, with little breaks in between, but they finally made it. The city of Rabona was finally within sight. Dietrich breathed a sigh of relief as did Violet, Lina and Noma.

Dietrich looked at the other groups they had ran into when they were returning.

The second group had consist of Audrey, Rachel, Nike and Clarissa; they were at the border between Lautrec and Toulouse, and Dietrich's group ran into them by pure chance. They were fighting a army of reanimated corpses of both humans and animals of 500 strong when they came along.

They backed them up, and after a long and lengthy battle, the zombified mammals and canines were defeated. The battle had caused their uniforms to be in the state it's in now: torn in their arms, legs and thighs; like someone had managed to grab on to them and pull at the seems. The light grey colour of their bodysuit was matted with blood as well.

The third and fourth groups, with Dominique and Minerva forming the third, and Letitia and Tesla forming the fourth groups had ran into them. Quite literally at that. Almost as if the fires of hell were on their asses. All of them had the unfortunate encounter with a Panzer Soldat not long after.

But after a lengthy battle with the mechanical thing, they were ultimately able to bring it down. Thankfully before it could outright kill or injure them.

"Oh, finally!" Nike exclaimed with relief, "I never thought I would be so glad to see the walls of Rabona!"

"Tell me about it."

"I'll say."

"It's good to finally be in a safe place!"

Dietrich heard everyone speak at once with relief evident in their voices. She couldn't blame them for that either. She was relieved to see the walls of the Holy City herself. With that in mind all four teams made their way to the city gates.

As they approached the women could see a lot of solders on the battlements. And there was a large encampment around the entrance. Many people, refugees they realised, were being kept from entering by armoured soldiers. Many people were in various states of undress too.

"What's the point of this?!" one average looking man, in his undergarments demanded fiercely.

"Why do we have to take our clothes off?!" a fully clothed woman cried out in pure, utter outrage.

Among the guards is a tall, muscular man with short brown hair decked out in full steel, plate armour, excluding a helmet. He was armed with a broadsword.

Standing beside him is a young man with long blond hair, tied back in a pony tail. He's wearing a mixture of cloth and plate armour, and is armed with multiple throwing knives and a short sword.

They are Galk and Sid, two Robanian soldiers.

Galk being an intimidatingly tall man was able to use his height to his advantage. And many of the civilians cowed at his glare. The other protesters went silent. Taking that as his cue to speak, Galk did so. "It's a new standard procedure. We had recently been attacked and had received several casualties. The reason we're having you all strip down is to make sure you're not bitten."

"Why does it matter if we were bitten or not?!" Dietrich heard a young man cry out in anger and frustration.

"Because if you're bitten, then there's a very high chance you're gonna die."

The soldiers looked behind them and made a clear path. The hybrids saw a single, Caucasian man with short brown hair and a moustache walking out to meet the refugees. His armour was made of a surcoat over mail with a strange circular symbol on it, chainmail and leather pants and steel plated boots and gloves.

In his hand was a metal staff. It was completely alien in its design; it looked to be made of many parts, and the top was closed. The man had the look of someone who had seen the worst the universe had to offer, and beat it with his own hands.

"I'm Dempsey." the man introduced himself. "You people got any questions, you ask me," he thinned his lips as he glared at them, almost daring them to argue with him. "Understand?" when no one answered he snarled threateningly. "I said DO YOU UNDERSTAND?!" he barked, much like the military officers of old did.

Many people jumped in surprise and fear; and for a reason they do not know they stood at attention and nodded affirmatively. Dempsey grinned with satisfaction.

He still got it.

"Alright," he began, now in a much calmer tone. "Ask your questions, one at a time. That is your first and ONLY warning."

"W-what is the point of us having to strip down?" the first nameless, and average looking man, with his underwear being the only thing keeping his decency had asked. He was much more cowed now.

"The point of this is to see if you were bitten or not." Dempsey answered him, and continued when he saw the same man about to open his damn mouth. "One week and three days ago the entire population of Alnwick has been wiped out. We're not even sure if there's any survivors baring who came here." the man told them.

"H-How many survivors were there?"

Dempsey looked at the person, a young brunette haired girl somewhere in her early teens. He sighed.

"As far as we know, there's two. And they were Claymore's." he answered her. Dempsey rubbed the back of his head with his free hand and added, "They told us about the walking dead; of how anyone that was bitten or were already dead had came back as one of them not long after."

He of course already knew about all of this, being one of the four experts in the known world as of now when it comes to those abominations of nature. Naruto Namikaze was close to being there himself. But he didn't have as much experience as himself, Takeo, Nikolai and Richtofen.

"What happens to those that were bitten?" the 12 hybrids heard a woman shakingly ask.

"As of now, standard procedure will have those bitten locked up behind bars. Anyone who refuses will be put down." Unsurprisingly there was an outcry of injustice at that. Dempsey however was not going to take their shit. He raised his staff into the air and, before everyone's eyes the top snapped open revealing a big glowing white crystal that had electricity crackling around it. Then everyone, excluding Dempsey, covered their ears as a thunder clap was heard when the staff released a discharge of lightning into the sky that immediately placated everyone.

Now that everyone was quiet Dempsey gave them a terrifying glare.

"This plague has a high casualty rate. 9 times out of 10, people who were bitten will die. And if you die you come back as a walking corpse. And if you're inside of the city, and that happens..."

Before any of them could answer, another person made their appearance.

"There you are!" Naruto exclaimed as he approached the American. For those that didn't see him before, they were taken aback from the way he was dressed. It was foreign. The silver eyed women could see it was a uniform of some kind, but that was it. The blond paused mid-step upon seeing the intimidated people in front of the man, he sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "'Tank'? Are you intimidating them?"

"No, I'm not." Dempsey motioned to the assembled crowds and said, "They're bitching and moaning, while these soldiers are trying to keep everyone behind those walls safe. They want answers, I'm telling them, on my terms: they need to shut up and listen or get a boot up their fucking asses."

"...right." Naruto answered in a tone that told the man, he didn't believe him. Then Naruto noticed the teams of Dietrich, Audrey, Dominique and Letitia and he pointed at them. "We got silver eyed people here!"

That brought everyone's attention to them. Galk was quick to get them to follow him and Sid inside of the city. They did so without hesitation.

"How come they're allowed in immediately and we're not?" the hybrids heard one of the irritated people being kept out of Rabona, ask demandingly.

"They're super humans, genius." came Dempsey's smart assed answer. "Out of everyone here, they're the ones who are most likely immune to whatever is making the dead rise up. Because if what is said about them is true, they can't get sick. Unless you can counter that?"

Naruto cleared his throat. "Now, for those who were cleared of bites already, get yourself dressed and move to my right. For those that weren't cleared, stay put and strip down to your underwear!"

"...Who are those people?" Dietrich asked Galk and Sid; she couldn't help but look back at them out of curiosity.

"They happen to be newcomers to Rabona. They just showed up around a week ago." Sid answered her. "The blond one has some history with Cynthia and Miria, Flora and Yuma, Veronica and Eliza, and Helen and Deneve."

"From what it is said, he went missing a near decade ago. Don't know where he disappeared too." Galk added on with a shrug.

"I'm not one for gossip, but it is said he spent those seven years in some far off land, fighting off all sorts of twisted monsters all by himself. But I would take that with a grain of salt." Sid added; he sighed and crossed his arms. "But what we do know is that the kid showed up a week and a few days ago. From their lack of reaction to his sudden appearance, Miria and several others that knew him was told ahead of time of his impending arrival. Then several days after that both Helen and Deneve show up, with this giant demon-creature attacking both them and Naruto. But you're going to have to ask them for the rest."

Duly noted, Dietrich thought to herself.

Out of pure and honest curiosity, about the man with that weird circle symbol on his cuirass over mail, Audrey asked. "What about that man who was with him? Who is he?" to discharge a bolt of lightning the way he did... there was no way that thing he had was normal.

"If the word around him is true, then that man is a part of Primis." Galk answered.

"P-Primis?!" Nike stammered in disbelief, much like the other 11 when that revelation was dropped on them. "As in, the Legendary four that saved the world from a great evil? THAT Primis?!"

"If the word around them is not a lie, then yes." Sid replied.

The two women couldn't help but look back at Dempsey from over their shoulders. While they're not superstitious in anyway, they did hear a lot about the heroes of old. Of Primis and how they saved the world, but at the great cost of the Old World collapsing.

If he is a part of that group, then they were in the presence of a living, breathing Legend!

And if he truly IS part of Primis, then what is he doing here? And how is he still alive after all this time?

Sid and Galk have seen their fair share of weird things. Clare having to infiltrate the Holy City in order to kill a yoma. A hybrid hidden herself in the city as a nun for nearly a decade. And then the Holy City was attacked several times, with the hybrids coming to defend it.

Then after everything that happened earlier in the week? Having four Legendary heroes showing themselves for the first time since their disappearance 3000 years ago, along with an ally of theirs that were talked through stories? They weren't all that surprised anymore.

X.X.X.X

The 12 women were led to a barracks and when they walked inside they saw Commander Miria, and quite a few other silver eyed women they recognised standing around a table. Amongst them were three men wearing the same armour and carrying the same but fundamentally different staff. There were several Rabonian soldiers as well. One of them being a general.

The general was in a heavy heated discussion with the men in crusader armour from the sounds of it, with Miria acting as a buffer between the two.

"Why should we listen to what you say?" the general demanded. "If you are who you say you are, then you're from an age long passed. What does anything you say have any relevance now?"

Nikolai looked the armour clad man in the eye and said with a perfect poker face. "Are you capable of killing your own family?"

"...What?" he growled viciously.

Despite the warning growl, Nikolai thinned his lips and added. "This plague can infect those through bites. The infected will get sick. And they will die. Then they will return as a walking corpse in less than a day." he smiled, but there was no amusement in it. It was cold. Detached. "It is what happened to my family. To my wife and child. To my mother and father. Their deaths could have been avoided, if one refugee had shown he was bitten. Instead he had turned and infected my family, who I had to kill when they turned. That is why it has any relevancy today."

"Unress you want to suffer through what Nikorai has, you wourd be wise to risten to him Generar..." Takeo told the general who was now contemplating on what he had just been told.

Knowing he was being asked for his name, the man gave them it. "O'neil." he glanced at Nikolai, Takeo and Richtofen and let out a tired sigh. "...How fast can this thing spread from person to person?"

"It varies from person to person." Richtofen answered. "Ze healthier ze person is, ze longer it takes for zem to turn. However, zere are a few people like meinself, Nikolai und Takeo zat are immune. Dempsey und Naruto are immune also."

"Is there a way to spread this immunity to others?" Miria asked, everyone was disappointed when Richtofen shook his head no.

"There was way to cure infection with these staffs." Nikolai revealed.

"What?!" General O'Neil bellowed in outrage. "How come you're not using them to heal the people outside the city walls?!"

"The prace which granted the staffs the power to do so, is no ronger accessibre." Takeo calmly answered him. "Northern France... No Man's Rand... the prace we wourd need to go, was sprit off from the mainrand of Europe and had sunk into the depths of the ocean. And more and more continents had suffered the same fate of spriting off during the war."

"Which means we would need to go into the depths of the ocean, and travel 5000 feet under water, or more. Which is no longer possible." Nikolai told them and seeing as the general was opening his mouth to continue, the Russian added. "And even if you had technology to achieve this, you would have to go to last known location of France... which would have been under water, eroding away to the passage of time for the past 3 to 4 thousand years. Do the math."

That made the general clamp his mouth shut and growl under his breath. Neither of the men were intimidated in the least. Miria on the other hand could feel some sympathy for the man, as she's much the same way when it comes to her own comrades. Her fellow hybrids.

Speaking of, the woman finally noticed the 12 new arrivals and was worried when she saw their dishevelled state.

Miria stood up and said. "Dietrich! You're back!"

When everyone looked in their direction the former No. 8 took a deep breath and nodded. "We are. All 11 of us. And we have grave news."

Everyone immediately went silent and patently awaited for her to begin. Dietrich was the one to go first.

"My group fought a small army of walking corpses, and later encountered a second one at Nile Village in Mucha. The streets of the Nile Village was completely overrun with the living dead. There were no survivors." She took a moment to collect her thoughts. "As we made our way back to the Holy City we were ambushed by animals who too were like the living dead."

"What...? Animals are capable of being infected too?" one of the solders murmured out if horrified realization.

Although she was very concerned about this revelation, Miria held up a hand and gestured for Dietrich to continue. She wanted to hear everything.

"We came across Audrey's group by pure chance. And after helping them get out of some trouble we retreated back here."

Dietrich then looked at Audrey who took that as her cue to tell Miria everything that happened on your end.

"My group was at the border between Lautrec and Toulouse when we fought a small army of the walking dead. We took care of them though. After attempting to get back to Rabona, we ran into another, much bigger, army of these dead people and wolves. A thousand strong, if I had to estimate." she paused to catch her breath and to gather her thoughts. "That was when Dietrich's group came and helped us defeat them. We encountered Dominique and Letitia's groups not long after." The former No. 3 reported to her commander.

Then Dominique and Letitia exchanged looks, before the former sighed and took a step forward.

"Mine and Letitia's group were on our way back to Rabona after discovering several towns had been emptied. There was blood everywhere. On the streets, on the walls, on the doors and windows. There were no bodies. Our groups met up a day later and we decided to high tail it back here." Dominique, Minerva and Letitia and Tesla all shuddered as they remembered what happened next. "And then, a day later, this... armoured behemoth of some type with fire coming out of its back, feet and hand dropped from the sky and attacked us!"

Letitia picked up where Dominique left off seeing how stressed she was becoming. "It was made of some of the hardest and thickest metal I had ever seen. Our weapons glanced off of it at worst, and made a small dent in it at best." she glanced at Tesla and Minerva. "We had to retreat from it since we had no sure way to hurt it. But it shot fire from its feet and back, and it managed to keep pace with us and it used fire to try and harm us. We don't know how long we were running for, but we eventually ran into Audrey and Dietrich's groups. We managed to kill it after a lengthy battle by stabbing the fucker through the front of its exposed helmet."

"Then all of us made our way here as fast as possible." Audrey concluded.

The entire room was silent throughout the whole thing, and by the time they were finished recounting their events leading them back to Rabona, there was a very, very tense atmosphere in the room it was almost suffocating.

"It looks like the dead are already spreading." Nikolai said with a scowl of distaste. He then looked to General O'Neil and told blandly told him. "This is why your soldiers are getting refugees to remove clothing before entry. No bites means no people turning. You let them in without checking, you can possibly doom entire city."

"What about those that are hurt?" Galk asked, "Some of the refugees may have hurt themselves when they were running away." The man greatly appreciates everything they're doing to keep everyone in Rabona healthy and alive, but he is merely covering all the spots they may have missed.

"If the injured are not bitten, then you ret them in." Takeo told him.

"And if they are bitten... well, you should know what to do by now no?" Nikolai rhetorically said.

He knew the question itself was rhetorical but one of the soldiers answered it anyway. "Lock them up for one day and one night. If they make it, they can rejoin the other refugees, if not..." he made a grimaced as if there was a bitter taste in his mouth. "...then we make sure they don't get back up."

Nikolai stroked bearded chin as he brought everyone back to the main point. "If they were attacked we might have to go and kill as many as possible." the man was clearly referring to Dietrich and the other three groups.

"Yes! Zat is right!" Richtofen motioned Nikolai and Takeo to follow him as he abruptly made to leave the barracks. "Ve should go und make sure zey are back vhere zeye belong: 6 feet in ze ground!"

Nikolai and Takeo followed him without hesitation.

"By ourserves?"

"Ve alvays did zese things alone. Und ve alvays succeed. Zhis should be no different." Richtofen answered with confidence.

"Try not to get too confident." Nikolai advised him. "Arrogance and confidence is bad combination; is downfall to many great men."

General O'Neil watched them go, and when they left, the man let out an exhausted sigh and looked to the acting Commander of the remaining hybrids.

"What are you to do?" he asked her.

Miria straightened herself and gave the general a neutral look. "What we always do. But instead of yoma we are to fight, it is the living dead. And I want to keep from having as many casualties as possible." she motioned to the door Nikolai, Takeo and Richtofen walked out of. "Since they fought the living dead and are the only people alive, excluding the Keeper, with the knowledge and experience to handle them I am taking any advice they can give. And you should too."

With that Miria went out of the room. With that as her way of saying their meeting is adjourned, the others dispersed from the room.

O'Neil however stayed behind and stared at the table. He had a thoughtful expression on his face; Miria seemed to hold those men in high regard. With a sigh the general turned and made his way out of the room, he'll give them the benefit of doubt for the moment.


	18. Chapter 18

Primis

Chapter 17

It was nearly an hour since Galk and Sid took the 12 hybrids into the city. And Naruto was watching the refugees stripping themselves down to their underwear, to show they were not bitten, before joining with the others. Those who re-clothed themselves were then allowed entry to the Holy City.

Suddenly Naruto let out a startled cry when he felt... something nearly overcome his senses! It was indescribable! But, if he had to, then it was like he was feeling several people at once! Only... he wasn't. Some how Naruto knew he wasn't.

The blond ignored the alarmed cry from several people as he stared out at the horizon, with wide and frantic eyes. 500 yards away, a fog was rolling in – an unnatural one.

He could feel... their presence, the dead, lurking within it. He could feel their hunger. They were, hungry. Always, hungry. They souls are crying out for release from their broken shell of a body. A body that kept decomposing, but never died.

With a groan Naruto stood up and surprised everyone, when Ancients Wrath appeared within his palm in a glow of light. He didn't have his DG-4's or his FG-42 anywhere on him. The blond didn't think he would need it. It turned out he was wrong.

The blond walked past the refugees and came to a stop 5 yards away from them.

Dempsey saw the fog but didn't make the connection. It looked completely normal to him. He walked beside the blond and asked. "Naruto? What's going on?"

"Tell me 'Tank'," Naruto began, "what enemy is associated with fog?" he asked, while pointing the tip of his sword at the unnatural occurrence in front of him.

"Hellhounds, but what does that have to do..." he asked, and as Dempsey continued to speak he slowly began to connect the dots, causing him to trail off as the man looked at the fog dead ahead.

It wasn't moving. The damn thing was just sitting there. Any thoughts of the fog being a natural occurrence was long now by now. The top of his staff snapped open as it activated and Dempsey aimed it at the fog.

"Get every refugee in the city!" Dempsey bellowed at the soldiers. "There's going to be an attack!"

Several loud inhuman howls sounded through the air just after the man shouted. The wild dogs and wolves sound like a dying dog howling and crying at the same time. Then before everyone's very eyes, several dozen wolves and wild dogs menacingly walked out of the fog. All of them were in the early stages of decay. Chunks of flesh and meat were missing. Blood from their previous victims dripped from their maws. And the smell of rotting skin could be smelt from over 500 yards away.

After seeing the dead wolves and dogs emerge from the fog, the soldiers didn't hesitate in getting the refugees behind the city walls.

"Well," began Naruto; the blond was walking to the zombified wolves and dogs with Dempsey keeping pace. "I never fought dogs before. I saw the memories belonging to my other selves, but fighting them first hand?"

Dempsey glanced at Naruto for a quick moment. "There's a first time for everything." he said to him before the man looked ahead.

"Oh, I know."

The two eventually came to a stop after crossing 125 yards. A brief decision later and Naruto switched out his sword for his bow. Sacrificing short range for long range.

Naruto exhaled in irritation before saying. "I know I couldn't have predicted this, but I should have taken my Ragnarok DG-4's and FG-42 with me. At least I'm not completely useless though."

"Focus, kid. We got ourselves an old fashioned stand-off." Dempsey looked over his shoulder. "Hopefully, Nikolai, Takeo and Richtofen." he glanced up at the battlements. "A large party of soldiers are mustering on the walls." the man looked ahead of him again. "Hopefully, they'll take the initiative and open fire on the maggot sacks." the man said as he looked back to the wolves and dogs again.

The canines howled their deathly howls to the sky before charging at Naruto and Dempsey. A blue flame tipped arrow manifested in his fingers as Naruto pulled back on the string of his bow. Then the blond let it loose.

One dog rushed out in front of the others and leapt directly into the arrows path. The canine exploded in a display of gore, the second it was hit by the arrow. Blood, bone and chunks of flesh landed on the earth and the other zombified canines as they continued rushing to the two humans.

Naruto let loose another arrow, and a wolf rushed out ahead and took the hit. It exploded in a display of gore. Naruto sent out two more and two more canines ran ahead and jumped in its path. Becoming a mess of gore and body parts on the ground.

Naruto was shocked by this level of intelligence from brain dead animals. How the hell did they realise how to reduce the effectiveness of his bow?! Nevertheless he kept firing arrow after arrow at the canines. They kept on dying one at a time by rushing out to leap into the arrows path.

But that quickly changed when Dempsey entered the fray once they got close enough. With thinned lips and narrowed eyes, Dempsey took aim at the first animal that got in his line of sight and pulled the trigger.

A thunder clap was heard when a single bolt of lightning shot forth from the staff and struck the ground. A small glowing sphere grew on the earth, and when several wolves and dogs got near it, all of them were struck more bolts of lightning.

They spasmed as they were electrocuted; a white glow came from their eyes and mouths before they fell to the ground, dead. More thunder claps were heard as Dempsey continued to shoot bolts of lightning at the ground and more and more zombified canines were shocked and killed as they got close.

However, more and more of them kept coming out of the fog. And they were getting closer and closer with each passing second.

"Get down on ze floor!"

Naruto and Dempsey hit the ground and a second later, a highly concentrated blast went over them and blew several zombified animals off their feet. They got up several moments later – or that was what they tried to do, as they were hit by a small fireball that killed them on impact. More were flash frozen in place.

Nikolai, Takeo and Richtofen all stopped beside and around the duo as they aimed the top of their elemental staffs in front of them.

"Foul beasts such as yourserf do not berong in the rand of the riving!" Takeo barked in disgust; then he shot another ball of fire at the zombified canines, as they leapt at the five.

Nikolai used his staff to flash freeze several more as they tried to circle them, and Richtofen used his to blow several a hundred feet into the air, killing the closest ones and merely knocking back the others that weren't.

Then Miria appeared in front of the group, claymore drawn, like a mirage; she moved her arms so fast it was like a blur and many of the zombified canines fell to the ground around her in pieces. She sliced diagonally in front of her and more of the living dead animals fell to the ground, re-killed once more.

A claymore was flung out of nowhere, and sliced through a zombified dog or two in two, before landing embedded in the ground. Yuma appeared beside it and yanked it out of the earth with one hand, before turning around in a full circle. The zombified dogs around her suddenly sprayed out with blood from their waist and collapsed to the earth.

Then the teams of Dietrich, Audrey, Dominique and Letitia appeared, along with Yuma, Cynthia and Tabitha, Flora and Veronica and many, many others. They started slicing at the zombified wolves and dogs the second they appeared in front of the Primis Group.

Naruto stood up and stared at the fog with squinted eyes. There's more of them, lurking within, he can feel it; but... there was far to many to count. Then he saw several dozen fiery red eyes appear in the fog. And more, and more, and more.

Several loud demonic howls sounded out and the wolves and dogs quickly retreated back into the fog. As the hybrids went in groups everyone bore witness to a new breed of zombies.

They were giant German Shepherds, near the size of a full grown human, and are badly deformed, with nothing but bone that remained of their snouts. They had chunks of skin missing on their body, mainly around the stomach area, or on the upper back.

There were two types; the first type had no belly, and no ribcage. They were constantly on fire, with the origin of the flames coming from the belly of the beast, and it spread out and up its back, tail, head and hind legs.

The second type, had its spine and ribcage exposed on its back and the side of its belly. They were constantly smoking, almost as if they were going to be set alight but never was.

Naruto knew what these things were. He fought them plenty of times in that mirror dimension. "Hellhounds!" both he and Dempsey shouted at the same time, "Miria! Make sure you and the others are away from the ones on fire when you kill them! They explode upon death!" Naruto warned her.

"Understood!" the woman replied.

Then at the same time, the Hellhounds all reared back their heads and howled at the sky. Several balls of lightning, numbering in the tens of dozens, appeared around the women and the Primis Group and the ground shook, as more appeared from them.

"Oh, great, more of them." Dempsey complained.

"I really wish I had my FG-42 now." Naruto growled.

A few hellhounds were cut to pieces before exploding. The culprits were revealed to be Helen and Deneve who landed in front of them. Richtofen and Takeo got many of the Hellhounds off their backs by combining their attacks together, creating a devastatingly huge fireball that both flew back the zombies and burnt them until they were unrecognisable.

Naruto found Helen was carrying his FG-42 in one hand. and Deneve holding both of his Ragnarok DG-4 in her hands.

"Thought you might need these!" Helen announced, as she lightly wiggled the battle rifle with a wide grin.

"I do. Thank you Helen, Deneve."

Said woman quickly ran to Naruto's side and handed over the battle rifle and wonder weapons to him. "No problem, kid." she said, before pulling her claymore from its slot and looking to her friend with an eager, yet blood thirsty grin. "C'mon, Deneve! Let's go help the others!"

"Right!" Deneve replied with a nod.

The Wrath of the Ancients disappeared from Naruto's hand in a glow if light when he was handed his DG-4s and battle rifle. As he checked the magazine on how heavy it is, a hail of arrows rained down on the hellhounds still in front of the fog. Many of them struck true, but a great many others had missed by a land slide. The demonic looking German Shepherds now had arrows sticking out of them, but other than that it didn't do much to impair them.

Naruto got down on a knee and took aim at the first one that came in his iron sights. The blond opened fire on each hellhound he could see in short, controlled bursts. The Mauser bullets ripped through the flaming Hellhounds skull, dropping many of them and causing the flaming ones to explode upon death.

That was what set the Hellhounds off – the moment they heard the sound of gunfire, they immediately bolted towards the hybrids and the Primis group.

Miria narrowed her eyes and held her claymore out in front of her. "Engage!" she commanded, just before she faded away like mirage. The woman reappeared amongst a small crowd of flaming hellhounds, who all fell to the ground mid-run face first, before she faded away again just the fire enveloped dogs exploded.

The other women followed suit and engaged the dogs from hell, cutting many of them down with their claymores, and made damn sure they stayed away from the flaming ones.

Anastasia appeared above the others, floating in the air, along with Helen, Deneve and Tabitha where the eyes of all four women are feline like with the iris being demonic gold instead of silver. The latter of the four almost became a blur to the naked eye as they launched themselves at the hellhounds; away from the fog thankfully where more and more kept emerging from it.

The three friends rapidly slashed at the ground below them, the earth being reduced to rubble and chunks of rocks along with the hellhounds as they past over them. They landed on the ground in a kneel and got themselves back to back when they found themselves surrounded by both normal hellhounds and the flaming ones.

Helen smirked cockily and mocking beckoned them to attack. She got an irritatedly, hunger filled growl from them all. Then they attacked. Or that was hellhounds intention, as they were cut down into several chunks the second they were in mid-air. Curtsey of Helen, Deneve and Tabitha. They shared a look, gave a nod, before running off to engage more.

The other hybrids were fighting off several dozen at once. And were killing twice as many. Anastasia was helping Nike, Clarissa and Rachel. They couldn't help but be surprised at how easy this was. They had more trouble fighting yoma! But these things were going down like chumps!

Dempsey shot his bolts of lightning at the ground near the silver eyed women, and watched as they were surprised to see several hellhounds getting electrocuted in place. Richtofen blew several more off their feet, potentially saving a few of them from knocked down to the ground and shaken like a rag doll.

Takeo merely allowed himself to be surrounded by the hellhounds, before skilfully dispatching them one by one, by caving in their skulls with the top end of his staff, or all at once by charring them with the ball of fire.

There were many of them that Nikolai flash froze in place, a lot of them were flaming hellhounds, none of which went up in an explosion thanks to their deaths being instant. There were others the Russian took out through stabbing them in the brain with the spikes around the top of his staff. Or caved their skulls in.

Nikolai spat on the ground out of disgust. "I fought bears more scary than you, hell dogs!"

Unbeknownst to the others Naruto suddenly froze, going wide eyed as he rapidly looked towards the fog. There was... a lot of anger in there. Anger. Betrayal. Hate. Death and destruction... she was searching for someone, she was scared, she was in pain. She was looking for a little girl who meant so much to her.

A German Shepard she was bigger than the other ones. And is disfigured like the rest. But unlike the others, she had no missing flesh except for her snout, the front part of her head and her forelegs.

Naruto fell to a knee with a grimace as the environment began to twist and turn around him.

X.X.X.X

 _Naruto Namikaze stood up as he took stock of the new location he found himself in. It was a room; a child's room the blond realised._

" _That's a good dog, Samantha! What's her name?" Naruto snapped his head in the direction the voice came from and found a younger version of himself, the same one he saw with that old man with the white scruffy beard._

 _Beside him was a brunette girl around the same age - probably a year or two younger - as him wearing a white dress with a blue cloak over her shoulders. She was on her knees petting a very pregnant German Shepard_

" _Thank you, Naruto. Zis is Fluffy!" Samantha said, wrapping her arms around Fluffy's neck in a loving hug. "Say hi, Fluffy!"_

 _The dog barked and sat on her haunches, panting with a lolling tongue. The other Naruto walked over and knelt in front of Fluffy and held his hand out in front of her. She put her paw on top of his palm, before giving him a big, sloppy lick across the cheek._

 _The blond laughed and Naruto, the older one, watched as the environment began to twist around him once more._

X.X.X.X

Naruto shook his head as he found himself in the present. The blond staggeringly got up on his feet, stumbling a little and stared at the giant hellhound- no, she wasn't just a mere hellhound. That was the origin of the hellhounds, Fluffy.

And she wasn't a part of this dimension either. Neither were the other hellhounds.

Holding the battle rifle in one hand Naruto stumble walked to her.

Dempsey noticed him and finished bashing a regular hellhounds head in before looking at him directly. "Kid?" he called out, trying to get the blond's attention.

Naruto didn't respond outside of putting up a single, shaking finger. A gesture the man was familiar with. The blond kept walking to Fluffy, walking past the hybrids, and did the same thing he did with Dempsey when they tried getting his attention.

They kept fighting the other hellhounds. With every one they killed ten would come and replace it. It was a literal endless army of demonic monsters.

Fluffy's crimson, glowing eyes were suddenly on him and Naruto came to a stop. He looked over his shoulder and found the archers on the battlements weren't firing. Fluffy could have used this very moment to attack him, now that his back was to her. She could have done it, but never. Instead the mutated German Shepherd narrowed her eyes at him, cocking her head to the side out of curiosity. It was when the blond turned to look at her again that she managed to get a good look at him.

His vibrant blue eyes, the spiky blond hair, the rounded, yet angular face. The lack of whiskers on his cheeks aside Fluffy recognised him!

Naruto felt recognition and elation from Fluffy's soul. Her tail was wagging happily and saw one of her own children was about to attack him now that he was distracted. Fluffy quickly barked and her litter, all of them, stopped what they were doing and ran back to their parent.

Just like that the fighting had stopped; but that didn't mean they were going to lower their guard. The hybrids, the ones closest to Naruto personally, went over to him. With Dempsey, Nikolai, Takeo and Richtofen following suit.

Fluffy sat down on her haunches as she stared at Naruto, with her tongue lolling out of her maw.

The men and women did not put their weapons away. For the men it was practical – they wouldn't be able to defend themselves if they did that. For the women, they were mostly fast enough to pull out their swords before their enemy can react. But in this case it was for more added security.

Naruto crouched down with a grown and rested his FG-42 on his legs.

"Naruto!" Helen hissed, looking alarmingly at him, and rightfully so since he was practically leaving himself at the mercy of the hellhounds by doing that. "What are you doing?! Get up!"

The blond turned to address her, but didn't take his eyes off of canine in front of him. "Trust me, Helen." he told her and everyone else at the same time.

Fluffy cocked her head to the side and slowly trudged on over to Naruto. Said blond raised his arm to tell everyone else to stand the fuck down and to not do anything completely stupid.

Then to the bewilderment of everyone the dog sat down in front of Naruto and whined.

"Hey, Fluffy." Naruto greeted her with a soft smile. "What're you doing here?"

The blond frowned as he felt her loneliness; fear; and pain. She wanted to find her master; her friend and loving owner.

Recalling the recent memory he had received, Naruto correctly assumed the girl in it was who the mutated German Shepherd's looking for. "I... don't think you're going to find her here, Fluffy." he looked at his hand in front of her and she reflexively placed her paw in it.

Naruto felt a presence in his mind – Fluffy's he wagered. He saw the German Shepherd's crimson glowing eyes brighten, quite literally at that too, before dying back down, and the presence leave. Huh. So Fluffy is... somehow capable of reading his mind?

The dog whined in distraught. He felt... sadness. Nothing else, just, sadness. Fluffy barked as she took her paw off Naruto's palm. And suddenly to the surprise and bewilderment of everyone nearby the other Hellhounds ran into the mist and disappeared while others left, via orb of lightning.

Then she vanished too, leaving behind a large number of bewildered people.

"...What the fuck just happened?" Dempsey and Helen asked aloud.

"I have an idea..." Naruto told them as he sat back up. The fog began to slowly disperse into the air now that Fluffy or the Hellhounds weren't around. "Fluffy was looking for someone. Don't know why she thought sending her puppies to kill was a smart idea though."

"Really? Who?" Richtofen asked.

"Her owner. A girl called Samantha that I suddenly saw in my memories just a few minutes ago. Apparently Fluffy knew me, or rather knew one of the other Naruto's, which is why the other hellhounds stopped." he answered.

"And the others?" Miria asked, referring to the wolves and wild dogs they were fighting before the Hellhounds appeared. "Are they going to be coming back too?"

Naruto looked at her for a moment and shrugged helplessly. "It's too early to say, but seeing as they weren't a part of her pack, I'd bet on it. But because Fluffy is not native to this dimension there is a good chance we'll be seeing the Hellhounds again." he told her.

The last part flew over their heads as they did not understand what the hell he was going on about. But they weren't going to question him. After all Primis Naruto had told them Naruto Namikaze wasn't going to be all there at times, thanks what he went through in that other realm.

The top of Dempsey's lightning staff snapped shut as he deactivated it. With Richtofen, Nikolai and Takeo's following suit; the four men gave each other congratulating nods before they looked at the flash frozen, charred and chopped up bodies of the canines they just fought.

Miria sighed and looked to Nikolai, Takeo and Richtofen. "I take it you're still going to 'take care' of the infestation?" she asked them and Dempsey now that he was here.

It was Richtofen who answered her. "Yes. If zey have attacked in such large numbers, it vill only be a matter of time before zey return."

"We take fight to them, and kill before they become problem." the Russian scratched at his neck with an irritated growl as he said. "Reason we almost lost last time, is because nations were to busy were fucking around for solution to zombie problem. Lost millions, in mere days across the world, because military did not mobilise fast enough. Now, we solve problem before it can become problem!"

Dempsey chuckled as he joined in the conversation. "Good thing we're not tied to any government in this day and age - it means there no red tape to stop us." he looked to the rest of his team mates and said in a stative tone. "I take it what was what you three were planning to do before this whole mess?"

"Yes. Ve vere coming to find you und Naruto."

While they were busy talking the person they were talking about was swapping the magazine in his FG-42 for a fresh one. He frowned upon realising there was only three left. His battle rifle was going to be useless soon unless he found a way to get some more ammo. He can't rely on the Keeper forever.

He listened in on what the others were saying as the blond heard Dempsey ask. "And what about you? What are you going to do?"

"We're going to keep on protecting Rabona." Miria answered. "If the towns in other regions have been met with the same fate as Nile... it would make the city the next place to be struck next." she looked at her comrades, "And send out a few of our own on a search and destroy assignments to keep the numbers of these... wandering walking corpses low."

"Then in that case we'll head to Nile and clear it out." Dempsey said, them burning it down if it proved beyond recovery had went unsaid however, but they caught the undertone. "Which direction is it?"

Miria pointed to the South.

"Right..." the man trailed off as he followed the direction she pointed at. Behind Rabona. Well that wasn't helpful at all. Though Miria merely did as she was asked. He wanted a direction she gave him one.

"It'll be quicker to show them the way." Dietrich told her commander. "My group was at Nile last; it would be easy for one of us to lead them there."

Richtofen was about to say something, up until he and everyone else heard a mysterious, sophisticated voice talk in their heads. Naruto, Dempsey, Nikolai, Takeo and Richtofen all knew who the voice belonged to; everyone else didn't and were unsurprisingly shocked to hear someone they do not even know just talk to them.

"You know, you lot are really making this problem more complicated than it needs to be. Then again you little snow flakes can sometimes find the best solutions to the worst problems. It happens in reverse too. Far too often than I would like."

"Monty." Dempsey greeted. "I've been wondering when you would show up again." the man said as he looked towards the sky.

"Wait, that voice belongs to Monty? The leader of the Keepers?" Miria asked.

"I wouldn't go so far as to call myself the leader. But, yes." Monty answered her. "Anyway, Naruto, your Keeper friend managed to get in contact with me. Normally I would never do this... but, the Keeper protector brought up some facts I cannot glance over."

"What does that mean?" Helen asked.

"It means I won't mostly be on the side lines anymore." Monty answered her. "I'm going to make things easier on you all. First things first, getting the undead pests reduced to a manageable number."

"Are you able to bring anyone that died back to life?" Helen hopefully asked.

"Their bodies were dead and their souls were corrupted by Element one-fifteen. They were to far gone to be saved, and had to be destroyed." the unsubtle, and blunt manner Monty used had caused almost everyone to wince.

"...And, done." the near omnipotent being said. "What were a few thousand are now down to a few hundred. Easy to manage as long as you don't fuck around and let them spread out again. They're coming from the South and West so if you were to go and take care of them now, you'll be free to repopulate your continent within several decades."

"And what about the glowing orange rocks? And the mutated yoma zombies?" Naruto asked.

"If I remember correctly, there was one or two of them on the entire island. One was near that town you first met Helen and Deneve but, they're long gone now. As for the new zombies? They're gone too. I have no idea where they buggered off, but I have a feeling they're going to show up some time later."

Everyone was relieved, yet worried to hear that, if the yoma zombies had upped and vanished the question was: what happened to them? But they were relieved to hear Monty had helped reduce a problem from being problematic and almost unstoppable to easy manageable.

Now that their zombie problem was easier to handle, Naruto remembered something and brought it to Monty's and consequently everyone else's attention.

"Doctor Monty, I remember there being a cache of Element One-fifteen back home. My dad may have said he had ordered it to be destroyed, I wouldn't put it past him or some other asshole trying to use it for their own ends. So can you get me home? I need to make absolutely sure it's destroyed."

"I can. And that's a very wise decision."

"I'm going with him if that's the case!" Helen quickly declared, as she stepped up beside him. Naruto was very surprised to see his fellow blonde volunteer so quickly... then again maybe he shouldn't be. This is Helen he's thinking about, she is a rather... erratic person with an erratic personality. She's intelligent but can come off as stupid with the way she says things, or from the lack of thinking things through.

However, Helen has a very legitimate reason for wanting to go with Naruto. He nearly died right in front of her, and she felt really guilty for allowing it to happen. She would have survived it as she took on worse wounds than Naruto ever had. She hoped that by going with him and watch his back, he wouldn't get fatally hurt.

"If you're going then I'm going as well." Deneve said as she stepped up beside her friend.

Almost no one was surprised to hear that. Helen and Deneve did everything together; they fought together;, they travelled together, they eat together and they even sleep together. The Primis group were surprised to have two super soldiers going with Naruto, but they weren't going to complain or argue. The more help Naruto has the better chances his survival would bePrimis

Chapter 17

It was nearly an hour since Galk and Sid took the 12 hybrids into the city. And Naruto was watching the refugees stripping themselves down to their underwear, to show they were not bitten, before joining with the others. Those who re-clothed themselves were then allowed entry to the Holy City.

Suddenly Naruto let out a startled cry when he felt... something nearly overcome his senses! It was indescribable! But, if he had to, then it was like he was feeling several people at once! Only... he wasn't. Some how Naruto knew he wasn't.

The blond ignored the alarmed cry from several people as he stared out at the horizon, with wide and frantic eyes. 500 yards away, a fog was rolling in – an unnatural one.

He could feel... their presence, the dead, lurking within it. He could feel their hunger. They were, hungry. Always, hungry. They souls are crying out for release from their broken shell of a body. A body that kept decomposing, but never died.

With a groan Naruto stood up and surprised everyone, when Ancients Wrath appeared within his palm in a glow of light. He didn't have his DG-4's or his FG-42 anywhere on him. The blond didn't think he would need it. It turned out he was wrong.

The blond walked past the refugees and came to a stop 5 yards away from them.

Dempsey saw the fog but didn't make the connection. It looked completely normal to him. He walked beside the blond and asked. "Naruto? What's going on?"

"Tell me 'Tank'," Naruto began, "what enemy is associated with fog?" he asked, while pointing the tip of his sword at the unnatural occurrence in front of him.

"Hellhounds, but what does that have to do..." he asked, and as Dempsey continued to speak he slowly began to connect the dots, causing him to trail off as the man looked at the fog dead ahead.

It wasn't moving. The damn thing was just sitting there. Any thoughts of the fog being a natural occurrence was long now by now. The top of his staff snapped open as it activated and Dempsey aimed it at the fog.

"Get every refugee in the city!" Dempsey bellowed at the soldiers. "There's going to be an attack!"

Several loud inhuman howls sounded through the air just after the man shouted. The wild dogs and wolves sound like a dying dog howling and crying at the same time. Then before everyone's very eyes, several dozen wolves and wild dogs menacingly walked out of the fog. All of them were in the early stages of decay. Chunks of flesh and meat were missing. Blood from their previous victims dripped from their maws. And the smell of rotting skin could be smelt from over 500 yards away.

After seeing the dead wolves and dogs emerge from the fog, the soldiers didn't hesitate in getting the refugees behind the city walls.

"Well," began Naruto; the blond was walking to the zombified wolves and dogs with Dempsey keeping pace. "I never fought dogs before. I saw the memories belonging to my other selves, but fighting them first hand?"

Dempsey glanced at Naruto for a quick moment. "There's a first time for everything." he said to him before the man looked ahead.

"Oh, I know."

The two eventually came to a stop after crossing 125 yards. A brief decision later and Naruto switched out his sword for his bow. Sacrificing short range for long range.

Naruto exhaled in irritation before saying. "I know I couldn't have predicted this, but I should have taken my Ragnarok DG-4's and FG-42 with me. At least I'm not completely useless though."

"Focus, kid. We got ourselves an old fashioned stand-off." Dempsey looked over his shoulder. "Hopefully, Nikolai, Takeo and Richtofen." he glanced up at the battlements. "A large party of soldiers are mustering on the walls." the man looked ahead of him again. "Hopefully, they'll take the initiative and open fire on the maggot sacks." the man said as he looked back to the wolves and dogs again.

The canines howled their deathly howls to the sky before charging at Naruto and Dempsey. A blue flame tipped arrow manifested in his fingers as Naruto pulled back on the string of his bow. Then the blond let it loose.

One dog rushed out in front of the others and leapt directly into the arrows path. The canine exploded in a display of gore, the second it was hit by the arrow. Blood, bone and chunks of flesh landed on the earth and the other zombified canines as they continued rushing to the two humans.

Naruto let loose another arrow, and a wolf rushed out ahead and took the hit. It exploded in a display of gore. Naruto sent out two more and two more canines ran ahead and jumped in its path. Becoming a mess of gore and body parts on the ground.

Naruto was shocked by this level of intelligence from brain dead animals. How the hell did they realise how to reduce the effectiveness of his bow?! Nevertheless he kept firing arrow after arrow at the canines. They kept on dying one at a time by rushing out to leap into the arrows path.

But that quickly changed when Dempsey entered the fray once they got close enough. With thinned lips and narrowed eyes, Dempsey took aim at the first animal that got in his line of sight and pulled the trigger.

A thunder clap was heard when a single bolt of lightning shot forth from the staff and struck the ground. A small glowing sphere grew on the earth, and when several wolves and dogs got near it, all of them were struck more bolts of lightning.

They spasmed as they were electrocuted; a white glow came from their eyes and mouths before they fell to the ground, dead. More thunder claps were heard as Dempsey continued to shoot bolts of lightning at the ground and more and more zombified canines were shocked and killed as they got close.

However, more and more of them kept coming out of the fog. And they were getting closer and closer with each passing second.

"Get down on ze floor!"

Naruto and Dempsey hit the ground and a second later, a highly concentrated blast went over them and blew several zombified animals off their feet. They got up several moments later – or that was what they tried to do, as they were hit by a small fireball that killed them on impact. More were flash frozen in place.

Nikolai, Takeo and Richtofen all stopped beside and around the duo as they aimed the top of their elemental staffs in front of them.

"Foul beasts such as yourserf do not berong in the rand of the riving!" Takeo barked in disgust; then he shot another ball of fire at the zombified canines, as they leapt at the five.

Nikolai used his staff to flash freeze several more as they tried to circle them, and Richtofen used his to blow several a hundred feet into the air, killing the closest ones and merely knocking back the others that weren't.

Then Miria appeared in front of the group, claymore drawn, like a mirage; she moved her arms so fast it was like a blur and many of the zombified canines fell to the ground around her in pieces. She sliced diagonally in front of her and more of the living dead animals fell to the ground, re-killed once more.

A claymore was flung out of nowhere, and sliced through a zombified dog or two in two, before landing embedded in the ground. Yuma appeared beside it and yanked it out of the earth with one hand, before turning around in a full circle. The zombified dogs around her suddenly sprayed out with blood from their waist and collapsed to the earth.

Then the teams of Dietrich, Audrey, Dominique and Letitia appeared, along with Yuma, Cynthia and Tabitha, Flora and Veronica and many, many others. They started slicing at the zombified wolves and dogs the second they appeared in front of the Primis Group.

Naruto stood up and stared at the fog with squinted eyes. There's more of them, lurking within, he can feel it; but... there was far to many to count. Then he saw several dozen fiery red eyes appear in the fog. And more, and more, and more.

Several loud demonic howls sounded out and the wolves and dogs quickly retreated back into the fog. As the hybrids went in groups everyone bore witness to a new breed of zombies.

They were giant German Shepherds, near the size of a full grown human, and are badly deformed, with nothing but bone that remained of their snouts. They had chunks of skin missing on their body, mainly around the stomach area, or on the upper back.

There were two types; the first type had no belly, and no ribcage. They were constantly on fire, with the origin of the flames coming from the belly of the beast, and it spread out and up its back, tail, head and hind legs.

The second type, had its spine and ribcage exposed on its back and the side of its belly. They were constantly smoking, almost as if they were going to be set alight but never was.

Naruto knew what these things were. He fought them plenty of times in that mirror dimension. "Hellhounds!" both he and Dempsey shouted at the same time, "Miria! Make sure you and the others are away from the ones on fire when you kill them! They explode upon death!" Naruto warned her.

"Understood!" the woman replied.

Then at the same time, the Hellhounds all reared back their heads and howled at the sky. Several balls of lightning, numbering in the tens of dozens, appeared around the women and the Primis Group and the ground shook, as more appeared from them.

"Oh, great, more of them." Dempsey complained.

"I really wish I had my FG-42 now." Naruto growled.

A few hellhounds were cut to pieces before exploding. The culprits were revealed to be Helen and Deneve who landed in front of them. Richtofen and Takeo got many of the Hellhounds off their backs by combining their attacks together, creating a devastatingly huge fireball that both flew back the zombies and burnt them until they were unrecognisable.

Naruto found Helen was carrying his FG-42 in one hand. and Deneve holding both of his Ragnarok DG-4 in her hands.

"Thought you might need these!" Helen announced, as she lightly wiggled the battle rifle with a wide grin.

"I do. Thank you Helen, Deneve."

Said woman quickly ran to Naruto's side and handed over the battle rifle and wonder weapons to him. "No problem, kid." she said, before pulling her claymore from its slot and looking to her friend with an eager, yet blood thirsty grin. "C'mon, Deneve! Let's go help the others!"

"Right!" Deneve replied with a nod.

The Wrath of the Ancients disappeared from Naruto's hand in a glow if light when he was handed his DG-4s and battle rifle. As he checked the magazine on how heavy it is, a hail of arrows rained down on the hellhounds still in front of the fog. Many of them struck true, but a great many others had missed by a land slide. The demonic looking German Shepherds now had arrows sticking out of them, but other than that it didn't do much to impair them.

Naruto got down on a knee and took aim at the first one that came in his iron sights. The blond opened fire on each hellhound he could see in short, controlled bursts. The Mauser bullets ripped through the flaming Hellhounds skull, dropping many of them and causing the flaming ones to explode upon death.

That was what set the Hellhounds off – the moment they heard the sound of gunfire, they immediately bolted towards the hybrids and the Primis group.

Miria narrowed her eyes and held her claymore out in front of her. "Engage!" she commanded, just before she faded away like mirage. The woman reappeared amongst a small crowd of flaming hellhounds, who all fell to the ground mid-run face first, before she faded away again just the fire enveloped dogs exploded.

The other women followed suit and engaged the dogs from hell, cutting many of them down with their claymores, and made damn sure they stayed away from the flaming ones.

Anastasia appeared above the others, floating in the air, along with Helen, Deneve and Tabitha where the eyes of all four women are feline like with the iris being demonic gold instead of silver. The latter of the four almost became a blur to the naked eye as they launched themselves at the hellhounds; away from the fog thankfully where more and more kept emerging from it.

The three friends rapidly slashed at the ground below them, the earth being reduced to rubble and chunks of rocks along with the hellhounds as they past over them. They landed on the ground in a kneel and got themselves back to back when they found themselves surrounded by both normal hellhounds and the flaming ones.

Helen smirked cockily and mocking beckoned them to attack. She got an irritatedly, hunger filled growl from them all. Then they attacked. Or that was hellhounds intention, as they were cut down into several chunks the second they were in mid-air. Curtsey of Helen, Deneve and Tabitha. They shared a look, gave a nod, before running off to engage more.

The other hybrids were fighting off several dozen at once. And were killing twice as many. Anastasia was helping Nike, Clarissa and Rachel. They couldn't help but be surprised at how easy this was. They had more trouble fighting yoma! But these things were going down like chumps!

Dempsey shot his bolts of lightning at the ground near the silver eyed women, and watched as they were surprised to see several hellhounds getting electrocuted in place. Richtofen blew several more off their feet, potentially saving a few of them from knocked down to the ground and shaken like a rag doll.

Takeo merely allowed himself to be surrounded by the hellhounds, before skilfully dispatching them one by one, by caving in their skulls with the top end of his staff, or all at once by charring them with the ball of fire.

There were many of them that Nikolai flash froze in place, a lot of them were flaming hellhounds, none of which went up in an explosion thanks to their deaths being instant. There were others the Russian took out through stabbing them in the brain with the spikes around the top of his staff. Or caved their skulls in.

Nikolai spat on the ground out of disgust. "I fought bears more scary than you, hell dogs!"

Unbeknownst to the others Naruto suddenly froze, going wide eyed as he rapidly looked towards the fog. There was... a lot of anger in there. Anger. Betrayal. Hate. Death and destruction... she was searching for someone, she was scared, she was in pain. She was looking for a little girl who meant so much to her.

A German Shepard she was bigger than the other ones. And is disfigured like the rest. But unlike the others, she had no missing flesh except for her snout, the front part of her head and her forelegs.

Naruto fell to a knee with a grimace as the environment began to twist and turn around him.

X.X.X.X

 _Naruto Namikaze stood up as he took stock of the new location he found himself in. It was a room; a child's room the blond realised._

" _That's a good dog, Samantha! What's her name?" Naruto snapped his head in the direction the voice came from and found a younger version of himself, the same one he saw with that old man with the white scruffy beard._

 _Beside him was a brunette girl around the same age - probably a year or two younger - as him wearing a white dress with a blue cloak over her shoulders. She was on her knees petting a very pregnant German Shepard_

" _Thank you, Naruto. Zis is Fluffy!" Samantha said, wrapping her arms around Fluffy's neck in a loving hug. "Say hi, Fluffy!"_

 _The dog barked and sat on her haunches, panting with a lolling tongue. The other Naruto walked over and knelt in front of Fluffy and held his hand out in front of her. She put her paw on top of his palm, before giving him a big, sloppy lick across the cheek._

 _The blond laughed and Naruto, the older one, watched as the environment began to twist around him once more._

X.X.X.X

Naruto shook his head as he found himself in the present. The blond staggeringly got up on his feet, stumbling a little and stared at the giant hellhound- no, she wasn't just a mere hellhound. That was the origin of the hellhounds, Fluffy.

And she wasn't a part of this dimension either. Neither were the other hellhounds.

Holding the battle rifle in one hand Naruto stumble walked to her.

Dempsey noticed him and finished bashing a regular hellhounds head in before looking at him directly. "Kid?" he called out, trying to get the blond's attention.

Naruto didn't respond outside of putting up a single, shaking finger. A gesture the man was familiar with. The blond kept walking to Fluffy, walking past the hybrids, and did the same thing he did with Dempsey when they tried getting his attention.

They kept fighting the other hellhounds. With every one they killed ten would come and replace it. It was a literal endless army of demonic monsters.

Fluffy's crimson, glowing eyes were suddenly on him and Naruto came to a stop. He looked over his shoulder and found the archers on the battlements weren't firing. Fluffy could have used this very moment to attack him, now that his back was to her. She could have done it, but never. Instead the mutated German Shepherd narrowed her eyes at him, cocking her head to the side out of curiosity. It was when the blond turned to look at her again that she managed to get a good look at him.

His vibrant blue eyes, the spiky blond hair, the rounded, yet angular face. The lack of whiskers on his cheeks aside Fluffy recognised him!

Naruto felt recognition and elation from Fluffy's soul. Her tail was wagging happily and saw one of her own children was about to attack him now that he was distracted. Fluffy quickly barked and her litter, all of them, stopped what they were doing and ran back to their parent.

Just like that the fighting had stopped; but that didn't mean they were going to lower their guard. The hybrids, the ones closest to Naruto personally, went over to him. With Dempsey, Nikolai, Takeo and Richtofen following suit.

Fluffy sat down on her haunches as she stared at Naruto, with her tongue lolling out of her maw.

The men and women did not put their weapons away. For the men it was practical – they wouldn't be able to defend themselves if they did that. For the women, they were mostly fast enough to pull out their swords before their enemy can react. But in this case it was for more added security.

Naruto crouched down with a grown and rested his FG-42 on his legs.

"Naruto!" Helen hissed, looking alarmingly at him, and rightfully so since he was practically leaving himself at the mercy of the hellhounds by doing that. "What are you doing?! Get up!"

The blond turned to address her, but didn't take his eyes off of canine in front of him. "Trust me, Helen." he told her and everyone else at the same time.

Fluffy cocked her head to the side and slowly trudged on over to Naruto. Said blond raised his arm to tell everyone else to stand the fuck down and to not do anything completely stupid.

Then to the bewilderment of everyone the dog sat down in front of Naruto and whined.

"Hey, Fluffy." Naruto greeted her with a soft smile. "What're you doing here?"

The blond frowned as he felt her loneliness; fear; and pain. She wanted to find her master; her friend and loving owner.

Recalling the recent memory he had received, Naruto correctly assumed the girl in it was who the mutated German Shepherd's looking for. "I... don't think you're going to find her here, Fluffy." he looked at his hand in front of her and she reflexively placed her paw in it.

Naruto felt a presence in his mind – Fluffy's he wagered. He saw the German Shepherd's crimson glowing eyes brighten, quite literally at that too, before dying back down, and the presence leave. Huh. So Fluffy is... somehow capable of reading his mind?

The dog whined in distraught. He felt... sadness. Nothing else, just, sadness. Fluffy barked as she took her paw off Naruto's palm. And suddenly to the surprise and bewilderment of everyone nearby the other Hellhounds ran into the mist and disappeared while others left, via orb of lightning.

Then she vanished too, leaving behind a large number of bewildered people.

"...What the fuck just happened?" Dempsey and Helen asked aloud.

"I have an idea..." Naruto told them as he sat back up. The fog began to slowly disperse into the air now that Fluffy or the Hellhounds weren't around. "Fluffy was looking for someone. Don't know why she thought sending her puppies to kill was a smart idea though."

"Really? Who?" Richtofen asked.

"Her owner. A girl called Samantha that I suddenly saw in my memories just a few minutes ago. Apparently Fluffy knew me, or rather knew one of the other Naruto's, which is why the other hellhounds stopped." he answered.

"And the others?" Miria asked, referring to the wolves and wild dogs they were fighting before the Hellhounds appeared. "Are they going to be coming back too?"

Naruto looked at her for a moment and shrugged helplessly. "It's too early to say, but seeing as they weren't a part of her pack, I'd bet on it. But because Fluffy is not native to this dimension there is a good chance we'll be seeing the Hellhounds again." he told her.

The last part flew over their heads as they did not understand what the hell he was going on about. But they weren't going to question him. After all Primis Naruto had told them Naruto Namikaze wasn't going to be all there at times, thanks what he went through in that other realm.

The top of Dempsey's lightning staff snapped shut as he deactivated it. With Richtofen, Nikolai and Takeo's following suit; the four men gave each other congratulating nods before they looked at the flash frozen, charred and chopped up bodies of the canines they just fought.

Miria sighed and looked to Nikolai, Takeo and Richtofen. "I take it you're still going to 'take care' of the infestation?" she asked them and Dempsey now that he was here.

It was Richtofen who answered her. "Yes. If zey have attacked in such large numbers, it vill only be a matter of time before zey return."

"We take fight to them, and kill before they become problem." the Russian scratched at his neck with an irritated growl as he said. "Reason we almost lost last time, is because nations were to busy were fucking around for solution to zombie problem. Lost millions, in mere days across the world, because military did not mobilise fast enough. Now, we solve problem before it can become problem!"

Dempsey chuckled as he joined in the conversation. "Good thing we're not tied to any government in this day and age - it means there no red tape to stop us." he looked to the rest of his team mates and said in a stative tone. "I take it what was what you three were planning to do before this whole mess?"

"Yes. Ve vere coming to find you und Naruto."

While they were busy talking the person they were talking about was swapping the magazine in his FG-42 for a fresh one. He frowned upon realising there was only three left. His battle rifle was going to be useless soon unless he found a way to get some more ammo. He can't rely on the Keeper forever.

He listened in on what the others were saying as the blond heard Dempsey ask. "And what about you? What are you going to do?"

"We're going to keep on protecting Rabona." Miria answered. "If the towns in other regions have been met with the same fate as Nile... it would make the city the next place to be struck next." she looked at her comrades, "And send out a few of our own on a search and destroy assignments to keep the numbers of these... wandering walking corpses low."

"Then in that case we'll head to Nile and clear it out." Dempsey said, them burning it down if it proved beyond recovery had went unsaid however, but they caught the undertone. "Which direction is it?"

Miria pointed to the South.

"Right..." the man trailed off as he followed the direction she pointed at. Behind Rabona. Well that wasn't helpful at all. Though Miria merely did as she was asked. He wanted a direction she gave him one.

"It'll be quicker to show them the way." Dietrich told her commander. "My group was at Nile last; it would be easy for one of us to lead them there."

Richtofen was about to say something, up until he and everyone else heard a mysterious, sophisticated voice talk in their heads. Naruto, Dempsey, Nikolai, Takeo and Richtofen all knew who the voice belonged to; everyone else didn't and were unsurprisingly shocked to hear someone they do not even know just talk to them.

"You know, you lot are really making this problem more complicated than it needs to be. Then again you little snow flakes can sometimes find the best solutions to the worst problems. It happens in reverse too. Far too often than I would like."

"Monty." Dempsey greeted. "I've been wondering when you would show up again." the man said as he looked towards the sky.

"Wait, that voice belongs to Monty? The leader of the Keepers?" Miria asked.

"I wouldn't go so far as to call myself the leader. But, yes." Monty answered her. "Anyway, Naruto, your Keeper friend managed to get in contact with me. Normally I would never do this... but, the Keeper protector brought up some facts I cannot glance over."

"What does that mean?" Helen asked.

"It means I won't mostly be on the side lines anymore." Monty answered her. "I'm going to make things easier on you all. First things first, getting the undead pests reduced to a manageable number."

"Are you able to bring anyone that died back to life?" Helen hopefully asked.

"Their bodies were dead and their souls were corrupted by Element one-fifteen. They were to far gone to be saved, and had to be destroyed." the unsubtle, and blunt manner Monty used had caused almost everyone to wince.

"...And, done." the near omnipotent being said. "What were a few thousand are now down to a few hundred. Easy to manage as long as you don't fuck around and let them spread out again. They're coming from the South and West so if you were to go and take care of them now, you'll be free to repopulate your continent within several decades."

"And what about the glowing orange rocks? And the mutated yoma zombies?" Naruto asked.

"If I remember correctly, there was one or two of them on the entire island. One was near that town you first met Helen and Deneve but, they're long gone now. As for the new zombies? They're gone too. I have no idea where they buggered off, but I have a feeling they're going to show up some time later."

Everyone was relieved, yet worried to hear that, if the yoma zombies had upped and vanished the question was: what happened to them? But they were relieved to hear Monty had helped reduce a problem from being problematic and almost unstoppable to easy manageable.

Now that their zombie problem was easier to handle, Naruto remembered something and brought it to Monty's and consequently everyone else's attention.

"Doctor Monty, I remember there being a cache of Element One-fifteen back home. My dad may have said he had ordered it to be destroyed, I wouldn't put it past him or some other asshole trying to use it for their own ends. So can you get me home? I need to make absolutely sure it's destroyed."

"I can. And that's a very wise decision."

"I'm going with him if that's the case!" Helen quickly declared, as she stepped up beside him. Naruto was very surprised to see his fellow blonde volunteer so quickly... then again maybe he shouldn't be. This is Helen he's thinking about, she is a rather... erratic person with an erratic personality. She's intelligent but can come off as stupid with the way she says things, or from the lack of thinking things through.

However, Helen has a very legitimate reason for wanting to go with Naruto. He nearly died right in front of her, and she felt really guilty for allowing it to happen. She would have survived it as she took on worse wounds than Naruto ever had. She hoped that by going with him and watch his back, he wouldn't get fatally hurt.

"If you're going then I'm going as well." Deneve said as she stepped up beside her friend.

Almost no one was surprised to hear that. Helen and Deneve did everything together; they fought together;, they travelled together, they eat together and they even sleep together. The Primis group were surprised to have two super soldiers going with Naruto, but they weren't going to complain or argue. The more help Naruto has the better chances his survival would be.

Plus they're mother-fucking super soldiers, refusing their help would make no sense!

"Alright, now... Dempsey, Nikolai, Takeo, Richtofen, Naruto, Helen and Deneve get ready. This journey's going to get bumpy. The Keeper will meet you at your destination."

Before anyone could react, all seven were enveloped by a bright light. Moments later the light dispersed into the air, with the seven gone with it. The hybrids searchingly looked around for them, only to find nothing. They were gone; they were no longer here.

"Any time you want a status update on them Miria, or want to send someone or yourself to check up on them, just ask."

And with that Monty went silent..

Plus they're mother-fucking super soldiers, refusing their help would make no sense!

"Alright, now... Dempsey, Nikolai, Takeo, Richtofen, Naruto, Helen and Deneve get ready. This journey's going to get bumpy. The Keeper will meet you at your destination."

Before anyone could react, all seven were enveloped by a bright light. Moments later the light dispersed into the air, with the seven gone with it. The hybrids searchingly looked around for them, only to find nothing. They were gone; they were no longer here.

"Any time you want a status update on them Miria, or want to send someone or yourself to check up on them, just ask."

And with that Monty went silent.


	19. Chapter 19

Primis

Chapter 18

 _11-years-ago._

An irritated red-head stalked through the shrubbery as she searched for her younger brother on the outskirts of Konoha. Beside her were her friends, a purple haired woman named Anko and a wild and unruly dark-haired woman with red eyes called Kurenai.

The red-head was informed by her friends and acquaintances that the person she was looking for had ventured out of the city towards the west.

In her case the person she was looking for happens to be her younger brother, Naruto Namikaze.

The red-head exhaled with annoyance. "Why does he always do this? He should know better than to go out alone!" she viciously ranted aloud.

"C'mon, Mine! Naruto is 13-years-old, the boy can handle himself." Anko told the red-head with an air of indifference. While she didn't know much of the boy, the woman wasn't that worried about him. "You don't need to be worried or get stressed out over him.

Who would have the balls to fuck with a child of Minato and Kushina?

People who have a death wish, that's who.

"Anko, Naruto being 13-years-old is precisely why I'm worried." Mine told her friend, "He's young and brash – he's prone to make some very stupid decisions." like wandering outside of Konoha by himself. Where no one is around. Where no one can hear him if he gets into trouble.

"Anko, he's alone and is probably far enough away from ear shot. If he gets lost or worse, hurt, then no one would be able to hear him." Kurenai flatly told her purple-haired friend, who proceeded to gave them a nonchalant shrug in return.

The three women kept walking down the path and as the minutes went from single to the double digits, they felt a chill run down their spine. They exchanged looks before picking up the pace.

They didn't know why... but they had a feeling something is wrong.

Several more minutes passed and the trio came to a stop. All three had wide eyed looks on their face at what they saw. Laying face down on the dirt, was an unconscious Naruto Namikaze. He had his right hand pressed against a boulder sized rock that had weird, and deep carvings on the surface.

There was an unnatural, orange glow emitting from the carving itself. And, somehow, it had electricity racing up and down the surface. The women quickly realised the rock was not natural, at all.

And Naruto's exposed skin was enveloped by the same orange aura, with arcs of lightening racing up and down the length of his body, going under his clothes.

"Naruto!" a horrified Mine shouted as she frantically ran over to him.

"Mine! Wait!" Anko tried to grab Mine, to stop the red-head from going over to her unconscious brother. But Mine was already a quarter way there.

Kurenai and Anko ran after her to stop the red-head from doing something stupid. Mine got to Naruto first and quickly pulled his hand away from the rock by the sleeve. The second the limb was lifted the aura and electricity died away; almost as if it had faded into his skin.

She grabbed at her brothers clothes and began dragging him away from the freakish thing. Mine looked at her friends, when they finally caught up to her. "Anko! Kurenai! Help me drag Naruto away from this thing! Right now!"

They didn't hesitate doing what she said after the glaring look the red-head gave them.

Once the unconscious blond was dragged away from the mysteriously glowing, and potentially dangerous rock, they stared at it. One in wonder, another in curiosity, and one with a look of bitter distaste.

Tearing her glaring eyes away from the thing, Mine looked down at her brother in concerned panic, before carrying him in a bridal carry. He didn't move, he didn't make a sound, if it were not for him breathing Mine would have thought her brother was dead.

She gave Kurenai and Anko a scared and nervous look and beckoned them to follow after her as she ran all the way back to Konoha. She had to tell her father about this! Right now!

X.X.X.X

 _Thirty minutes later._

Inside he office of the Fire-Shadow tower, Minato Namikaze was busy reading and signing paperwork. It was filled with bookshelves, a wall with hanging photographs of the previous leaders of Konoha, a single office desk with two stacks of paperwork.

And behind the comfortable swivel chair where Minato is sitting, is a large window which allowed the man a overlooking view of most of Konoha itself.

The man sighed as he stamped his seal of approval on the current one, and grabbing a new one to read. This one was a request to make a new plantation to grow wheat. It got his seal of approval as soon as he finished reading it. The door to his office opened and his assistant, Akari an average looking woman with her brown-hair done up in a bun, walked in to the room and silently took out the pile of papers that were signed.

Minato stopped what he was doing and stretched his arms over his head with a groan. He jumped when his office door was slammed open, and his second daughter, Mine ran in with his youngest child in her arms, with Anko and Kurenai coming in just after.

He immediately stood up upon seeing the panicked look on her face.

"Mine! What happened!" Minato demanded as he moved out from behind his desk.

"I don't know!" Mine exclaimed, and she quickly walked over and handed her little brother to her father. "I just found him, unconscious in front of this... rock thing!"

Minato adjusted his hold on his little boy and grasped his hand. His skin was cold to the touch. It was like he was touching ice... he felt anger welling up within him. How could have this happened?!

With narrowed eyes, he handed his son to Kurenai and gave his daughter a serious look. "Mine. Where did you find him?" Mine subconsciously straightened up, knowing this wasn't her father talking, it was her commander.

"I will take you there, sir!"

Minato nodded and gestured for her to lead the way. Mine saluted and led her father – her general – to the location she had found her little brother.

" Akari, send a message to the military, I want a small platoon of grenadiers to meet me outside of the city."

X.X.X.X

Another 30 minutes had passed, and Minato along with a platoon of 50 men and women were being led to the location, Mine had found his son.

Once they found the damn thing, everyone, Minato included, noticed how alien the rock looked. It was the size of a boulder, and had deep carvings on the surface where a faint orange aura could be seen from the inside.

The blond didn't know why, but Minato knew this was no ordinary rock. A plan began to form...

He turned to his daughter. "You can go now, Mine. I'll take it from here."

His daughter nodded and left. Minato then looked to one of his soldiers and began to lay out his orders.

X.X.X.X

 _Same day, some time later..._

As he stood back and away from the others, Minato Namikaze watched as his subordinates uploaded the rock inside of a large metal carriage. It was made with extra thick and reinforced iron. On the containers door had a turn-able wheel on it.

While he was worried about his son, who had not woken up from his coma after being found out here after god knows how many hours, he could not allow a potential asset like this go to waste.

After his daughter Mine and her two friends Anko and Kurenai came running into his house, with Mine carrying an unconscious Naruto in her arms, he was scared for him. Really scared. He was told where his son had been found.

Which is where he is now.

Officially, he'll be ordering this rock destroyed to set the minds of the people that would ask questions, such as his wife Kushina.

Unofficially, it's being taken to an underground, mountain bunker a few miles away from Konoha for research and production. To see if they could find a way to harness this mysterious rock to their advantage; if they could, they would be able to make powerful weapons, and other assets.

Speaking of weapons and assets... maybe this rock is the missing piece for that giant metal man they found buried under that mountain they used as a bunker?

It can't hurt to try.

X.X.X.X

Naruto sat in his room by himself. Laying on the floor face up to the ceiling the thirteen year old had his eyes closed; asleep and seemingly unaware of the world around him.

"Can't you see Minato!? There is something wrong with him!" Naruto twitched as he heard a faint, but familiar voice yell at someone. His mother. Why did she say that?

"There is nothing wrong with him Kushina. He's doing perfectly fine." Naruto twitched again and moved his head slightly upon hearing the familiar voice of his father; and like his mum, Naruto's dad sounded a younger.

"Fine? FINE?! He can't remember what happened between the ages seven to twelve Minato! He's lost nearly a decade of his life thanks to that bloody boulder!" Naruto softly grunted when he heard the faint shouting of his mum and the failings of his father to try and keep her calm.

"It'll pass Kushina, don't worry." was Minato's reassuring voice. "We're getting rid of it so no one else will share the same fate. Afterwards we'll try to see if Naruto can still do things other children can."

"And if he doesn't? What then?" Naruto slowly opened his eyes and looked towards the partially open bedroom door.

"If he doesn't, then it will be up to us to make sure he can." The way Minato said that with such confidence made the young Naruto frown. Why were they talking as if something was wrong with him? He may not remember the past several years, but that didn't mean nothing was wrong with him.

"There's nothing wrong with you." Naruto looked to his bed when he heard an old man speak to him in a kindly manner. White hair and a similar coloured beard, a receding hairline; clothes consisting of a dark green and red lined jacket with a blue buttoned shirt worn underneath, a pair of black fingerless gloves, black trousers and shoes.

"Ah ah ah, there's no need to speak little one. No one but you can hear me." the man said as Naruto opened his mouth to talk. Slowly nodding to show he understood Naruto closed his lips and sat up cross legged and turned around to look at the man.

The question he was projecting was easy to see: who are you?

"I go by many names. But you can call me Doctor Monty." the now named Doctor Monty answered.

Naruto cocked his head to the side; the question, 'why are you here?' was showing on his face.

Chortling to himself Doctor Monty groaned as he pushed himself off of the bed and walked to the window with his hands behind his back.

"You know you are not the first person to have lost their memory by touching that stone." Monty said as he stared at the large town on the opposite end of the window and knowing he had captured Naruto's attention he continued. "You most certainly will not be the last either. The side effects it has on its victims will linger." he suddenly turned around and gave Naruto a look full of pity. "Now don't worry the memory loss won't last. You will get your memory back. Eventually. But the side effects unfortunately will always be there. I am afraid your parents are fighting a lost cause."

Naruto got upset. But he didn't cry. Instead he hugged his legs and tightly closed his eyes. He snapped his eyes open and looked up when he felt Monty thread his hands in his hair and rub them. Like a grandfather would.

He had a grandfatherly smile on his face. "Don't worry. While you may have lost a lot of things you have improved in one thing. Trust in this old man when I say it will help you in the future. But...I'll get you figure out what you're good at for yourself. There'd be no fun in its discovery otherwise!"

And then just like that he was gone. Startled Naruto quickly got up and wildly looked around his room. The man is just vanished.

It was here that Minato and Kushina, his parents, entered the room and when Naruto looked at them he saw Minato was looking at him with a patent smile, while Kushina looked like she was straining to do the same. She was upset but was trying to hide it.

The father gave his son a patent smile and as he offered his hand, Minato said. "Naruto please come with us for a moment. We need to check something."

Not seeing anything wrong with that Naruto got up and walked over to his mum and dad. He took the larger hand of his father' and allowed him to guide him out of the room.

X.X.X.X

 _11-years-ago_

 _Three weeks later_

Inside his house, Minato Namikaze was watching his son trying and failing to do a simple task of playing catch with his oldest sister Fuyu, from the window of his bedroom. His hand eye coordination was spot on, like always, but for some reason Naruto had never, ever, managed to catch the object being tossed to him.

It was worrying. Very worrying. Fuyu kept her concern hidden away from her younger brother, but not him. Not her father. He could tell she was concerned, worried and afraid. It wasn't just him playing catch with his sister that Naruto was bad it. It was almost everything. Whatever had happened to his son, had made him... clumsy to the degree he could only preform basic human tasks.

Anything else, he would struggle with immensely.

"How is he?" Minato looked over his shoulder to see his former mentor, and father in all but name, Jiraiya entering the room.

"I don't know." the man answered his mentor as he turned back to peer out of the window. "His reaction time is the same. His personality has not changed, he is still eating healthy. But he has gotten so clumsy, that anything he does outside of basic human tasks, is terrible. He's not making any improvements in any activity whatsoever. Nor is he getting worse in them. " Minato let out a hollowed sigh. "I don't know what to do."

To comfort the blond, Jiraiya put a hand on Minato's shoulder and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

"All we can do now is give him time and wait and see." the man consoled his former student. "It's been three weeks and Mine told us how... unnatural that stone was."

"Yes," Minato nodded in remembrance. "Mine said Naruto's skin had a faint orange glow, and had electricity crackling up and down his skin when he was touching it. I wouldn't have believed her if I had not seen the rock for myself."

"Speaking of that rock, what happened to it? Has it been destroyed?"

Minato answered the older man reassuringly, "It has been taken care of. There's nothing to worry about it." he expertly lied through his teeth. Jiraiya didn't notice the blatant lie his son in all but blood had told him, and took his word at face value.

"Good." the white haired man let out a sigh of relief. "Who knows what would have happened if it wasn't." he did not know why but the description of that stone; of that glowing rock; it gave him chills.

Minato sighed and turned away from the window. "Have you receive word from your informers on what it is? What it's capable of?"

Jiraiya let out a sigh of his own; it was full of exhaustion. "Not as far as I know. I had my men combing through every archive we found and recovered from the previous era. The language, as you know, is close enough to ours. But none of the documents within have any mention of these... glowing orange rocks. And if there was, it's highly probable they are now long gone."

Minato sighed again. "Disappointing, but not unexpected." he said and grasped his hands behind his back. He would have liked to know just what the rock is capable of. The man thought the archives would have the answers to his questions.

It seems he needs to do this the old fashioned way.

Trail and error.

"How's Kushina taking this?" the elder asked him.

"Kushina..." Minato paused to gather his thoughts. "Kushina is always worried about him. She seems to think something is wrong with our son, that him still having trouble with as simple as playing catch isn't normal." he rubbed the bridge of his nose and added, "I have to agree with her, Naruto and Fuyu have been going at this for an hour and he hasn't improved at all. If anything he seems to be getting worse than better."

"He looks fine to me." Jiraiya said, "He's breathing well; he looks healthy; while his... new found lack of talent for anything you find so far is worrisome, if you keep this up, and have him preform different tasks with varying difficulties then I am positively sure he'll be back to normal within 2 to 3 years."

"Oh? Did Tsunade tell you that?"

Jiraiya snorted. "Call it an old man's intuition, you brat."

Minato chuckled, "I'll keep that in mind, and you updated on Naruto. If he makes any progress you'll be the first to know."

Jiraiya gave his former student a patient smile, nodded, and left the room to leave Naruto's father to his own devices.

Had he looked back, Jiraiya would have seen a thoughtful frown on Minato's face as he just before he turned to face the window again. The man was planning something; something big. And it involved the glowing orange rock that is safely inside the mountainous bunker a few miles out.

X.X.X.X

 _9-years-ago_

A fifteen-year-old Naruto took aim down the range with his musket. The blond didn't know why, even after using a musket for two years, it felt right; it was like he was meant to hold a weapon like this in his hands.

With one eye closed, he lined up the shot and pulled the trigger. He would never get used to the kick, not after what happened the very first time he fired the rifle.

The fucking kick was so unexpected for the, back then, 13-year-old that it knocked him on his ass and dislocated his shoulder. Setting the joint back in its place was an even bigger pain. Nothing ever topped that.

Naruto began the minute long process by loading the gunpowder into the tube inside of the rifle, and inserting the bullet inside of the chamber.

If there was one thing the blond hated the most about these muskets, it was the fact they could only shoot one bullet before having to reload. If only they had the more advanced weapons, like an M16 assault rifle. Or an M1A1 carbine? They had less reload time and had the capacity to shoot more than one bullet.

And don't get him started with the flintlock pistols and the flintlock blunderbuss, they were equally as bad since they shared similar setbacks. Still he liked the blunderbuss as a pistol.

"You've improved, Naruto."

Naruto set the now-loaded musket down against the wall before looking behind him. His mentors, Kakashi and Yamato were observing him with crossed arms.

Kakashi is his dads old student; a grey haired man in his late 20s with the bottom half of his face covered up by a mask, with an eye patch over his left eye that served no other purpose other than to look decorative.

Yamato is another old student of his fathers; he had short brown hair and is also in his late 20s. Unlike Kakashi beside him Yamato did not have a mask or any decorative accessories worn. The two men wore similar clothes – a black military grade flak jacket, with a sleeveless jumper for Yamato and a rolled up sleeved jumper for Kakashi. They wore matching coloured gloves with leather guards over them, a kevlar vest that covered their entire torso, shoulders and their upper arms, almost like spaulders. some pants and steel-toe cap boots.

A bullet proof vest – or as Naruto liked to call them, 'bullet resistant' vest, was one technology they had managed to recover from the previous era and recreated it. Though they made some adjustments and improvements to it, such as adding more protection to the shoulders and arms.

Naruto chortled and looked back down the range. "I had some good teachers." he said with genuine honesty.

"Have you found something you would like to do, after your done with your training?" Yamato asked the fifteen-year-old as he picked up the musket.

Naruto paused momentarily before pressing the butt of the rifle against his shoulder, and taking aim down the range. "Yeah, I did actually. I'm thinking of taking up a job as a security guard in a penitentiary near Konoha. They're recruiting, and from what I heard, they are not particularly picky in who they hire." he took a deep breath and pulled the trigger, with the rifle bucking against his shoulder.

"They must have a shortage of men if that's the case." Kakashi deduced, watching as his student began the minute long process of reloading the musket. "Still, it'll give you some experience under your belt; and having some is better than none."

"Yeah, there's that. And what I will be doing the most, is standing guard and patrolling the parameter for hours. Easy money and non-life threatening." the blond pointed out with a chuckle.

"...Are you sure you don't want Minato and Kushina to know about your skills in fights?" Kakashi suddenly asked; he was really concerned for his former teachers son. The man had heard talk that Minato was steadily getting more and more frustrated, at his son's lack of skill in nearly everything he tried to do.

Sooner or later something was bound to happen. And for this grey haired man, he had a feeling that 'something' wasn't going to be good.

Naruto snorted at the question. "Dad barely treats me as his own son; Mum is barely there and Mine and Fuyu are barely around. And when they are, they merely dismiss me or best. Ignore me at worst." Both Kakashi and Yamato winced at the examples and the pure bitterness in his voice as he gave them; it sounds as if he wasn't telling them everything. "In my honest opinion, they don't deserve to be told about this. It may do more harm than good in the long run, but that's their fault."

Kakashi and Yamato thought otherwise, but kept their thoughts to themselves. They knew how hard headed and stubborn Naruto is when it came to something – it was a trait he shared with Kushina. They wanted to get themselves involved in this family feud Minato had inadvertently made; but kept themselves from doing so.

It was a family thing – and as much as they wanted to just tell Minato and Kushina of their son's ability to understand, use and fire a musket and other flintlock firearms, the son and parents had to solve this by themselves.

Even if they thought otherwise.

X.X.X.X

 _8-years-ago_

Deep within Mount. Houri, several miles outside of Konoha was Minato Namikaze. He was in the office of the bunker, which was more like an underground base and research facility than a bunker. The bunker was a thousand feet long and five hundred feet high. It was, in simple terms, the biggest bunker ever made on the face of the planet.

But there was a good reason. The bunker itself was not man made. Not really. The ground, nay, the entire mountain itself was grown around a giant metal man of a thousand foot long. They found the titan sized construct twenty-five-years ago, by pure luck. And the entire bunker itself was built around it. Mainly to see how it worked, what it was able to do, what it was capable of. And most importantly: could they get it to turn on.

Unfortunately, despite all the progress they've made in getting all the dirt, grime and dust cleared from its joints, and replicating the replaceable components such as gears, wires, and glass – they were simply unable to turn it on. They knew they were missing something; a key component; but they had no idea what it was.

Then that strange, and otherworldly orange glowing rock was placed inside the bunker 3-years-ago. No one knew what it was; but as far as they did know it could affect someone's functionality their general's son, Naruto Namikaze was a textbook example of it.

Never the less, they did everything they could to prevent themselves from ending up like him. Though that attempt was slowly proving to be... ineffective. While they weren't ending up like their leader's youngest child, those that were close to the glowing orange rock were getting sick.

It wasn't a severe or normal illness, it was a mild one, and a couple of days break and they were as good as new. They learned to not be near the rock for long periods of time. They went in shifts, lessening their chances of getting sick. And it was effective.

From the window of his office, Minato watched with a sense of pride as his men worked tirelessly to find a way to turn on the giant metal man. They had gotten a small chunk of rock from that stone they brought in three-years-ago and were about to try it out on the metal man.

They barely found anything out about it in those three years. Just that it made people sick the longer they were around it. No one suffered the same fate as his son, thankfully.

When they brought the rock to the inactive robot. Something happened. Something that took everyone by surprise. The rock when it was brought to the robot, sank into the metal and the giant machine whirred to life. They were lucky it didn't have enough juice to move or else it would have gotten up and flattened everyone inside the bunker.

It shut itself down a minute later when it no longer had any power to sustain itself, but Minato had a massive grin that threatened to separate his face. Finally! Finally they managed to do find and use something that would get the metal construct to turn on!

They were one step closer to achieving his goals.

X.X.X.X

 _8-years ago,_

 _One month later._

Minato stared at the... guests, a word he is using loosely, with a stoic look. These men in black were off putting. He wasn't afraid of them, but he had a feeling there was something... off about them. Something sinister. All of them were garbed in black clothes from head to toe, making them look like ninjas. The one leading them was a bald man wearing a fedora and sunglasses.

Nevertheless, the man couldn't help but be suspicious of their arrival and incredulous of what they were asking for.

Minato laced his fingers together in front of him as he leaned forward on his desk. He gave a dark clothed man wearing a hat, their negotiator, a piercing stare. "Do you know what you're asking of me?"

The man smiled, undisturbed by the stare the fire-shadow was giving him and inclined his head. "I do. All I ask is for you to give us orphans, miscreants, people that no one knows or would miss. We shall even pay you in gold."

Minato frowned even more. "And what would happen to them?"

"They will be cared for. They will be given new homes, new families, or if they want - they can be trained to become soldiers."

It was a lie and a very good one. Minato, the leader of Konoha, had bought their word at face value instead of doing the reasonable, and smart thing. Like asking questions or where they even came from, since they were clearly foreigners. Then the man did something that would set off events that may or may not have repercussions in the future.

The blond nodded and leaned back in his chair. "Very well. You have permission to take orphans and other trouble makers. There is one more person you can take with you as well: my son, Naruto Namikaze."

The reason he was allowing them to take his son is because the man thought the boy was useless. And as a soldier, a general, this was a blemish. He wanted his boy to be fixed of his problem and after trying everything for the past three years, he was at a ropes end. So he was putting everything in this one last opportunity.

The man before him tilt his head to the side, a curious frown pulling at his lips. "Your son? Are you sure?" The man in black didn't really care to be honest, but he wanted to avoid creating an enemy with this technologically advanced city. With their own war they've been fighting for centuries with no clear winner on each side, they simply could not afford making a new enemy.

Minato nodded. "Yes. My son is... it is hard to explain his condition – however, what happened to him three years ago has changed him. I'm hoping you're able to cure him of his... ailments, and train him to be the best soldier he can be."

"I see..." the man adjusted his hat and smiled politely. "That will be of no problem for us. Is he here?"

Minato shook his head. "No, but my son is due to be back in the next couple of days." the man then grabbed a piece of paper that already had writing on it, but with a few underlined blanks . It hadthe signatures of his advisor's already on it; all that was needed was to write down what the declaration form is for and to add his signature to make it official. And that is what he did. Once he was done, he handed it to the man in front of him, who gently took it off his hands. "That is a declaration form, enabling you to take no more than 20 orphans. My son included. Simply show it to the orphanage. As for my son, I'll take care of that."

"I see," the man folded it and placed it in his inner pocket. "a pleasure to do business with you."

With that the fedora wearing man left the room with his small contingent of men. Minato let out a heavy sigh when the door closed behind them and he leaned back against his chair. He really hoped he didn't make the wrong decision in practically selling his son to them.

X.X.X.X

 _8-years-ago,_

 _One month, four days later_

Minato let out another heavy sigh as the men in black left his city with their cargo of orphans. His unconscious son was amongst them, though he was in a carriage of his own. Already, he was regretting his decision in allowing his son to be taken away, but he can't turn back now. Not when he's already committed.

Thankfully no one was the-wiser to what he had done. As far as everyone else was concerned, Naruto Namikaze was kidnapped.

His son didn't even see it coming; didn't even see who his assailants are. He was bashed across the back of his head with a blunt object, knocking him out instantly.

Unfortunately for Minato, he had no idea what the men in black were really like, and what they were intending to do to those orphans and his own son. If he had realised, they never would have gotten out of the city alive.

X.X.X.X

 _Four years ago_

Back inside of the mountainous bunker, Minato re-read the monthly report for what felt like the tenth time. He wanted to be absolutely sure he didn't misread anything. This machine of theirs was delicate; they had managed to remove much of the dirt and grime that managed to build up in its joints from centuries of isolation. Satisfied he lowered the report to the desk and laced his fingers together.

"Are you positively sure, that you are able to get the giant metal man working within the next three years?" he asked the scientist and officer who are currently in charge of the ongoing operation.

The scientist nodded with a gleeful grin."Yes! We have the required source of energy needed to power it up; if we keep up the repairs within the next three years or so, we will have a new weapon to use in the defence against our enemies!" He informed Minato ecstatically.

The blond gave the man a respectful nod of acknowledgement. "Very well." then he looked at the officer. "And what do you have to report, sergeant?"

The man in question handed Minato his own monthly report. The man took it and read through it all with a stoic look. While Minato did that the man gave this leader a brief overview of what the report had down.

"We had found two spies from our enemies in Stone and Cloud trying to find a way in the base. They were disposed of before they could find a way to gain entry."

Minato nodded in approval. "Good. Very good." he set the report down on the desk in front of him, intending to read it in full later on. "Dismissed."

With that the two men left the room, leaving Minato to himself.

X.X.X.X

 _Present._

 _Two days before the arrival of Naruto, Helen, Deneve and the Primis Group._

Minato watched as his scientists inserted the glowing orange rocks into the giant metal man. It took them a lot of resources and manpower but at long last, they have reached this point. This moment - their moment - of triumph was close at hand! So very, very close!

And when the fifteenth, and largest sample of the glowing orange rock was inserted, the machine whirred to life. The sound of it powering up for the first time in 3 to 4 thousand years, strongly at that, had filled the entire room.

As everyone cheered and congratulated one another on a job well done, that was when things started going to hell.

The entire bunker started to shake and crack as the 1000 feet tall robot began to move. People started screaming and running as the entire bunker was being destroyed from the inside. The container that held the rest of the mysterious orange glowing rock

And from outside, the mountain began to crumble and rise up at the same time as the machine forced its way through several thousand feet of earth.

The movement of the giant machine was felt all the way to Konoha, at first they thought they were having an earthquake until someone brought their attention to the mountain in the distance when they heard it crack and collapse. Then, they saw it, the giant 1000 feet tall metal robot rising out of the mountain.

The rubble that was the mountain fell off of its rusty metallic surface as it rose to its full height. Then it moved, sending shock-waves into the ground with every step it took. Luckily for the civilians of Konoha, the robot didn't go near them as it walked; the environment around it on the other hand was not so lucky. Trees were crushed and uprooted, and deeply embedded footprints were left in its wake.

Back in what remained of the mountainous bunker/base, Minato hacked and coughed as he and several others shoved the rubble out of their way. They were beyond lucky they had managed to find a relatively safe place to take shelter in. The others were not so lucky.

Minato coughed as he and the others looked for a way out. They could hear the machine moving around outside. The sound of metal crushing and uprooting several hundred trees filled the air.

Minato stood up and pulled as many people as he could to their feet, and began their slow traverse up the remains of the underground mountain, before finding a corridor that led to the exit after several hours of walking and climbing.

When they finally got outside, they saw the amount of destruction the robot had wrought on their landscape. It wasn't even leaving the area! It was walking in circles, and ruining everything it touched.

What had they done?


	20. Chapter 20

Primis

Chapter 19

 _Present time._

Several miles outside of Konoha, a bright, yet human sized light appeared at the base of the underground base/bunker's remains. The first people to emerge from it were Helen and Deneve. They staggered forward, almost like they were drunk and disorientated. Following their emergence was Naruto, who allowed his battle rifle to hang from his shoulder as he got the two best friends to use him as support until they got reorientated.

Dempsey, Nikolai, Takeo and Richtofen were the next to emerge, and they immediately surveyed their unknown, dishevelled and utterly destroyed surroundings searchingly, the top of their elemental staffs held in front of them and ready to unleash hell on any enemy that would dare attack them.

And finally the Keeper himself floated out of the light, with it dispersing into particles behind him a mere moment after.

Everyone could see the poor state the place was. Uprooted and flattened trees; large, medium and small chunks of the Earth was everywhere. And lastly they heard something big moving around. It did not appear to be close, but whatever it was that's moving, it put them all on edge. It could come back at any moment.

Then Naruto looked behind him and slowly grew wide eyed when he finally saw the destroyed mountain behind them.

"Holy shit, what the hell happened to the mountain and the woodlands of my home?!" the young man exclaimed in shock. Hearing his tone Dempsey, Nikolai, Takeo, Richtofen and Helen and Deneve all looked at him, then in the direction he was facing; they got the same reaction as he did.

"Eh!? What the hell could cause that?!" Helen all but shouted in disbelief with an waving arm. "Don't tell me we're going to have to fight the thing that did this!"

Dempsey held up his fist. "Be quiet, and listen," the man instructed.

Helen narrowed her eyes at him as her lips went into a thin line in mild annoyance. But she did as he instructed. Naruto and Deneve exchanged looks again before they too listened carefully.

Loud footsteps, a loud thud that shook the ground. The noise of metallic whirring. And it was getting louder. That was when Naruto finally sensed it: Element One-fifteen. And it was coming from the... south? No, the south-east.

"I fucking knew it." Naruto spat, with a scathing scowl. He looked off in the direction he felt the cache of element one-fifteen being at. "I was hoping dad got rid of the damn thing; but it looks like he did the opposite!" Due to how fast it was moving, Naruto guessed they would see it in about a minute or so.

"What did he use it on I wonder?" Dempsey wondered.

Once Helen and Deneve got their balance back Naruto took his arms off them, and crossed his. "Wait for a minute, and you're likely to see it."

The silver eyed women gave him questioning looks at that but didn't go and ask him what he was talking about. They settled for waiting. The same went for the Primis group.

They waited and exactly one minute later, they all saw it: a one thousand feet tall robot. It greatly resembled The Iron Giant from that Disney movie of the same name... only there was an artillery gun on the right side of its head, two pincers for fingers, and finally it had a rectangular lens to make its eyes.

It was a technological marvel, the pinnacle of German ingenuity, powered by Element One-fifteen itself.

"Great," Dempsey said with faux enthusiasm. "a one thousand foot tall robot. Just what we needed."

"I really hope it is automatic." Nikolai said, unperturbed by the metal monstrosity. "Having to fight people controlling it would be annoying."

"People are controlling that thing?!" Helen screeched in disbelief as she pointed at the robot in question.

"Peopre CAN control it, from the inside." Takeo corrected her. "However, we wirr not know untir we go and find out."

With a thoughtful look Richtofen stroked his chin. "If I had to guess, zis mountain had grown over ze robot during ze past 3 to 4 thousand years. Und vhen it was powered up, it broke through, reducing everyzhing to vhat you see before you."

"I can see that happen." Dempsey said, in the utmost seriousness. "Element One-Fifteen is said to be so powerful it's can power things for an eternity. A small portion of the stuff wouldn't have been enough to power something this big. Maybe a few systems, but not enough for it to move. But a boulder sized one? That would certainly do the trick."

Naruto scowled. "I can't remember if the one I found is boulder sized. But seeing that thing walking around... I'm going to say it was." he let out a low growl before checking the magazine in his FG-42. It was. He put it back in the slot and found the robot was heading in their direction. ]

The blond looked around again; the trees were uprooted, but he could see many more were flattened... Trees were resilient, very much so, so flattening them like that would require a lot of force pressing down on them...

Then he realised. The blond looked at the robot and found it was stepping directly on top of the imprints on the ground – directly where some of the trees would be.

Helen watched with wide eyes as Naruto took off. "Eh? Wha- Hey!" she called after him, "Don't go over there you idiot!" when he didn't respond the silver eyed hybrid let out an irritated 'tch' and quickly went after him.

"As hotheaded Helen may be, she has a point!" Deneve called after him, "Getting in its path is really stupid!"

"Really, really stupid!" Helen concurred.

Seeing as he didn't answer any of them, again, Deneve shook her head and took off after them. The pixie-hair blonde wondered what Naruto was up to. Why didn't he just do the easy thing and bloody talk to them? Explain what he's doing, or something? This is completely unnecessary!

Dempsey, Nikolai and Takeo and Richtofen all exchanged looks before calmly following the three blonds at a sedated pace. The Keeper being silent throughout the entire thing, merely followed them. Though his shoulders were jumping up and down signifying its amusement with the entire situation.

Naruto came to a stop in front of one large imprint in the ground. As Helen and Deneve caught up to him, the blond knelt at the edge of the slope and merely took it all in.

He jumped when Helen pulled him up to his feet and spun him around. She looked really irritated. "Naruto! What the hell are you thinking?!" she demanded, shaking him back and forth like a rag doll.

Her attention was brought to her best friend Deneve, when she grabbed her shoulder. "He can't answer if you're shaking him like that." she pointed out.

Naruto who wasn't being shook around anymore, swayed unevenly on his feet. He would have fallen on his ass if it wasn't for Helen holding him up.

Helen looked back at Naruto. "Well?! What do you have to say for yourself!" she demanded.

Before Naruto could answer, they were rejoined by the Primis Group and the Keeper. Dempsey answered for him, by stating the obvious. "Looks like this is a footprint, from that machine." he stood at the edge of the ledge and stared at the robot that was quickly getting closer with each passing second. It'll be right on top of them soon.

Deneve looked at Dempsey for a moment, then she looked at the robot and narrowed her eyes. "Is it just me or is it getting closer to us?"

"It is most definitely getting close." Richtofen said, confirming the woman's suspicion. The sound of metallic whirring from its moving joints was beginning to overtake everything. "Zis must be ze route it is taking." he rubbed his chin. "If my memory is correct, one of ze entrances is on its foot. I however, do not remember vhich one it is."

"I think it was on its right?" Nikolai yelled over the loud metallic noise, though the man sounded unsure. "It has been such a long time, I am unsure."

Everyone slowly edged back from the footprint as the robot was literally right in front of them by that point. It raised its foot, brought it forward, and the ground shook under their feet when the 1000 feet tall robot stepped directly on top of the embedded footprint. The shockwave nearly sent everyone down on their asses, but everyone had enough time to see underneath the foot.

It hovered in the air for a moment, and they saw the sealed entrance on the sole. Then it brought its foot up as it moved and everyone watched with rapt eyes as it distanced itself from them in a matter of seconds.

"You all saw it, right?" Dempsey asked them.

"Yes" Takeo said. "The entrance to the metallic monstrosity is on its right foot."

"Ze easist vay to gain entry vould be to shoot it open. Vhich means one of us must be directly under its foot." As Richtofen's words slowly sank into mind, everyone slowly brought their gaze to Naruto.

The blond blinked owlishly. "What?" he saw them look at something on his possession, and when he followed their gaze it was his FG-42 hanging at his waist. He realised what Nikolai, Takeo, Dempsey and Richtofen were going to want from him. "No. No, no, no, no, no, no! No!"

"Kid, you're the one that has the weapon." Dempsey told him.

"You have an elemental staff!" the blond blandly pointed out. "You go and shoot it open!"

"Ve vould have a better chance at opening it vith your veapon. Ve need it." Richtofen pointed out to him.

"Fuck that!" the blond spat, he slowly backed away from them. "I'm not going to stand in the middle of that footprint!"

Helen and Deneve were outraged by what Naruto had said. "WHAT?!"

Dempsey on the other hand looked at the blond with an incredulous look. "What? Where the hell did you get that idea?"

Naruto blinked owlishly. "Y-you're not going to tell me to open that thing?"

Dempsey looked at him as if he had said the stupidest thing he had ever heard. "What? No! Where the hell did you get that idea!? I want your gun so I can go and open it!"

Seriously, why did Naruto think he was going to ask him to go and open it? While two super humans are right there within hearing range? That's just stupid! Not to mention he did it before in the past. Heck Nikolai, Richtofen and Takeo all opened the seal entry way on the robots foot several times when they were around.

"Oh. " Naruto, Deneve and Helen all blinked owlishly, then the former looked at his battle rifle, lift it up and over his shoulder and tossed it to the former United States marine. "Okay. Here you go." when the man caught his weapon and began to check the weight of the magazine, the young blond asked, "So, are you going to wait for it to come back around?"

Dempsey let out a scoff. "Tch, of course I am. What? You think I'm gonna chase after it? That would be stupid."

While they were talking the robot had made a slow U-turn, and was now walking in the direction it came from.

"I'd give it 30 minutes tops before it makes another U-turn and comes back." Dempsey said.

"I'll give it 20." Nikolai said.

"15 for me." Takeo added on.

"I am not ze one zat bets... but I think it vill return in 15 to 20 minutes." Richtofen said as well.

That was a suckers bet, and Dempsey was so confident in his own that he gladly shook on it. The Keeper. Naruto, Helen and Deneve watched on as the four ancient men shook each others hands bemusedly. The latter of the four slowly looked at Naruto, with their expression conveying "what is happening right now?!"

Naruto shrugged helplessly; he had no idea what they were thinking. Memories of them aside, he is still suffering from the illusions induced by Element One-fifteen – though they weren't as bad as they used to be. Thank god for small mercies; the blond did not want to experience another black out. And if that machine IS powered by Element One-fifteen then the Primis Group is the best people to go in that machine and shut it down. Or get it to stop moving.

Speaking of said robot, Naruto looked in the direction it's walking to. It's gone now – but its footsteps can still be heard, still be felt.

"I'm curious as to why no one has tried to take it down." the blond said with crossed arms.

"It's one thousand feet tall and made of incredibly thick metal. Unless they have better artillery, and better fire-power then they won't come close to taking it down." Dempsey pointed out to him. "Honestly, the easiest way to stop it from causing unnecessary damage is to go inside the damn thing and shut it down from there. Or, make it stop moving."

And with that Dempsey, Nikolai, Takeo and Richtofen, Naruto, Helen and Deneve waited for the robot to make its u-turn around. While they were waiting Helen looked at Naruto and eased her way over to him; pulling her claymore from the slot on her spaulders and sticking it in the hard ground. Then she surprised Naruto by pulling him in to a one armed hug, and took enjoyment at the bewildered look he was giving her. Then he shrugged and simply enjoyed having her essentially leaning against him.

"So, your home huh?" she asked, for the sake of striking a conversation.

Naruto nodded and leaned against her; an act she didn't mind and in fact encouraged. "Yep. You saw a part of it in that shattered world, remember?"

Helen giggled with a massive grin as she let him go. "How can I forget?" she gave him her first kiss there; seriously, her first kiss! How on Earth can she forget that? Speaking of kissing...

"Hmm?" Naruto looked to Helen he felt her tap his shoulder. Then his eyes grew startlingly wide when the pageboy-haired woman cupped his cheeks and pressed her lips to his. At first the blond didn't know what to do, this was completely out of his element – and thank GOD the Primis group didn't notice – but when the older woman wiggled her tongue against his lips he hesitantly opened them.

The hybrid took that opportunity to dash her tongue inside his mouth and plunder his orifice. With her tongue exploring his mouth, and their saliva's mixing, Naruto decided to take an active part in it. He wrapped his arms around Helen's waist and pulled her to him, as his tongue coiled around hers, mixing their saliva's together.

Hearing the sound of kissing Deneve looked at her friend and sighed exasperatingly. Well, at least Naruto seems to be enjoying it and is taking an active part, rather than pushing her away, and that Helen isn't being forceful about it. Because if her flamboyant friend was, then she'd have to drag her away from him, less he be scarred for life from her antics.

"Huh." Deneve looked to Dempsey, who along with Takeo, Nikolai and Richtofen had finally noticed them making out. "She's a little old for you, but that's just my cultures prejudice kicking in. Still, good on ya' kid." he complimented. And he was honestly glad for him; that woman kissing him is a total babe!

Naruto was a little busy to reply, but he gave the living relic the a-okay gesture, even as Helen – who was now giggling - tried to figuratively deep throat him with her tongue. The blond in her grasp was doing a very good job at fight her off though. Or warding her away from her objective.

Then when their lungs burned for fresh air, Helen finally pulled away with a string of saliva connecting to their tongues being shared. Naruto took several mouthfuls of air and looked at her in total bewilderment, his face red in surprise.

"I'm... I'm not complaining, but... what... what was that for?" he asked between breaths.

"Nothing really," Helen answered, lightly patting him on the cheek with her eyes partially closed. "I just wanted to kiss you – we never did kiss again after you got out of that weird as fuck place. I thought it was long over due~"

Naruto slowly smiled and let out a bewildered, and quiet laugh. "I wouldn't mind doing that again to be honest. Maybe when the time is best to do it though."

Helen laughed and affectionately rubbed his head with a cheerful, closed eyed grin. "I will hold you up to that!"

As the minutes passed to an hour, the Primis group sat down on the ground to rest their legs. The Keeper was still floating around keeping watch. Helen and Deneve had the pointed end of their sword stabbed into the earth, and were sitting down with their backs pressed against it. It was slow but eventually everyone of them felt the ground shake again, and the metallic whirring could be heard in the distance and was getting louder and louder with each passing second, signalling the robots approach.

"Here it comes," Dempsey announced, as he got up on his feet with a grunt. "Wish me luck, eh?"

The robot quickly made its approach on its automated route. Everyone looked up as the 1000 feet tall robot raised its left foot, and they saw along with the lights turned on, there was a maintenance hatch there.

Dempsey sprinted directly under the foot and opened-fire on the lights. The maintenance hatch opened as the foot came down directly on top of the man.

"FUCKING HELL!?" Helen cried out in surprise, as she and Deneve both quickly got to their feet at what they had just seen. "DID HE JUST COMMIT SUICIDE!?" the former Number 22 asked, looking at the other three demandingly, even as the robot kept on walking.

Nikolai shook his head. "No. 'Tank' is inside robot."

"He is working on a way to get it to stop." Takeo added.

Then Richtofen added on conclusively. "If he get ejected, ze velocity compensator vill make sure Dempsey vill survive his fall. So zere is no need to vorry."

"...ejected?" Helen asked as she stared at them hard with squinted eyes.

Flinching as a memory not belonging to him suddenly appeared, Naruto held the side of his head with an irritated grunt. "He gets thrown out, from the head right?" the blond said, looking at Richtofen with tired eyes.

The German nodded, his eyes growing wide in surprise. How did he know that- oh. He recognised that look anywhere. Element one-fifteen induced illusions; it doesn't seem as bad as it normally would. During the early stages of the Great War, some patients he had in the past believed they were other people – that they were in the medieval ages fighting the same threat they were facing then.

So because Naruto wasn't affected to the point he would black out, the German wasn't worried about it.

One minute later, everyone looked up at the robot as it came to a halt. It went ramrod straight and bent its knees to balance itself. They waited for another minute, and Helen and Deneve were startled when Dempsey was ejected from the robot. Thankfully, the velocity compensator made sure the American reached the ground where he entered the giant metal man unharmed.

Which was directly in front of the group.

"Oh, god." he groaned, making his way back to them on wobbling feet. "I did not miss that. At all." Dempsey chucked Naruto his FG-42 as he said, "Here, kid, catch." then the man sat down on the ground once he was out of the embedded footprint with a groan.

Naruto caught the FG-42 and slid his arm and head through the sling, to let it hang by his waist. Now that they got the robot to stop walking around and ruining the environment they were able to take a small breather without having to worry they would accidentally step in its path.

"So, uh, what... what do we do now?" Helen asked, looking rapidly between Dempsey, then to Nikolai and Takeo, then Richtofen and finally Naruto for an answer.

"We wait." Naruto told her, "My home may have had eyes on that thing, and were probably too scared to try and get close to it due to its sheer size. But now that it's stopped, they're probably going to send a contingent of musketeers over to check it out. And we'll be right here to greet them."

"Sounds like plan to me." Nikolai said with approval.

Deneve looked bored, like she always did and Helen looked around to see anything out of the ordinary. It was a whole new land for her. But eventually she stopped because there was nothing else around except for the giant metal construct Dempsey managed to stop.

Naruto was all for it to be honest. Now that he took in the destroyed mountain behind him, and the ruined environment caused by the formerly automated robot, the Namikaze was understandably annoyed and angry.

His dad was the cause of all this, he knew it. While he wanted to believe otherwise, his father was a militaristic man through-and-through. There was no way he would get rid of an asset like that rock so easily. Not when it could be used to give him an advantage over everyone else. And because he could literally feel the fucking rock inside of that thing, it just gave him more credibility.

It may have been the prejudice over his own dad talking, but Naruto was sure Minato was the cause of the mess the robot caused. Nevertheless they all waited for someone to show up.

Nearly three hours later, Naruto snapped to his left when he heard the sound of twigs snapping. He immediately got up on his knees and got his FG-42 raised and ready to fire in the direction he heard the noise coming from. The others looked in the direction the blond was as well, but apart from Helen and Deneve who stood up and pulled their claymores up and out of the ground, they didn't do much else.

Not a second later, a group contingent of soldiers wearing dark brown flak jackets, military grade trousers, long sleeved shirts and carrying ammo pouches for their muskets with bayonets appeared. They had their flintlock rifles aimed at them as they came out of cover.

The trees may have gotten flattened, but that didn't mean they didn't have anything to conceal their approach. Something they used to their advantage, until they made the mistake of miss-stepping on a twig.

And leading them was someone Naruto was very familiar with, despite not having seen her for a near decade. It was his older sister, Mine Namikaze; crimson red hair that was tied back in a pony tail, a heart shaped face and violet eyes and she was in the same attire as the other soldiers.

And when she laid eyes on her younger brother for the first time in seven years she was so shocked she lowered her weapon. Like wise the soldiers around her were equally shocked and they too lowered their rifles when they realised just who was among the group of strangers.

"N-Naruto? L-little brother?" Mine called out, looking as though she had seen a ghost. He may be wearing clothes she didn't recognise but the second youngest daughter of Minato and Kushina Namikaze could still recognise him.

In response Naruto aimed the barrel of his gun at the ground and chuckled, "Hello, Mine. Long time no see." he looked at the 1000 feet tall robot and gestured nonchalantly towards it, "Hope you don't mind, but we stopped that thing from walking around."

Mine looked at the robot then back at her brother, "How'd-" she started, only to be interrupted by her brother.

"One of us got inside and got it to stop. So, where's dad? I need to... ask him something."

The way he said that sent chills up Mine's back; nevertheless, the young woman answered. "He's on his way to the robot with a small contingent of musketeers and grenadiers." she answered, then she directed her gaze to the Primis Group and Helen and Deneve – though for the latter two, she narrowed her eyes in slight suspicion at the odd colouration of their hair and strange looking eyes. "Who are they?"

"They're friends of mine." Naruto answered, looking at the group with a fond smile, more so for Helen and Deneve. "And I trust them with my life."

"Aw, I love you too Naruto~!" Helen cooed with a flirtatious grin. Deneve just shook her head but didn't otherwise do or say anything.

Mine on the other hand was aghast with Helen's flirting, even if her brother returned the grin.

Then Naruto looked around when he finally noticed the Keeper was gone. Again. The blond sighed in exasperation. "Looks like we're missing someone, again."

Helen wildly looked around. "Wha? Where'd the Keeper go?!"

Deneve had a flat look on her face. "Obviously the Keeper left us while we weren't looking."

"The Keeper is not immortar. It can farr just as easiry as any man." Takeo wisely said.

Naruto sighed as he shook his head. "I'm not surprised to be honest. He likes to disappear and reappear any time he wants." he said, then he looked at his older sister. "I'm going to have a little walk with dad. I have some questions I want to ask him."

With a pleading look on her face Mine Namikaze took a step towards her brother. "Naruto, please, before you do anything else, please, please, tell me where you've been?" she pleaded desperately, her face was contorted with the expressions of disbelief, relief, and pleading. "Kakashi, Yamato, Fuyu and I have been searching far and wide for you, but we found nothing. There was no trace of you. It was like you just vanished off the face of the earth!"

For the longest time, Naruto was quiet. He took in Mine's words, and was admittedly touched that she was that worried for him. That she, Fuyu and Kakashi and Yamato looked for him after he went missing. Then he crossed his eyes, looked at Helen and Deneve, before coming to a decision.

"I was kidnapped by men in black." he eventually answered as he went to look at his sister once more. "But if you take me to our dad, you'll get your answers I am sure you're dying to ask."

Mine looked at him, and she looked at him hard. Then she sighed and nodded. "Alright. I'll take you to him – he should be at the giant metal man by now."

Naruto nodded and looked at Helen and Deneve, and the Primis Group from over his shoulder. He beckoned them to follow. Dempsey, Richtofen, Nikolai and Takeo all stood up and took hold of their elemental staves and walked to the teenager. Helen and Deneve were already standing, so they simply went over to their friends side with Helen standing a lot closer to him than she previously was.

Amongst a group of strangers in a strange land, wielding primitive weaponry when its compared to Naruto's, but advanced when compared to what she's used to using? Helen couldn't help but feel on edge and protective of Naruto, since she remembered him saying the orders that allowed him to be taken away by the Organization against his will came from the very top.

And since his dad is the leader... it's safe to assume it was he allowed the Organization to take him away.

Once they were grouped together Mine gave the foreigners odd looks, mainly because of what they were wearing. Though her eyes lingered on their more advanced equipment, like the Elemental Staffs belonging to the Primis Group, or the battle rifle hanging from her brothers waist. But despite her curiosity, she didn't say or ask about them. She certainly didn't ask about Helen and Deneve's strange coloured eyes or the odd colouration of their hair.

Then when Naruto gestured for her to lead on, Mine nodded and turned around to do just that. Her small contingent of soldiers formed a protective circle around the small group and since the son of their leader was amongst the group, they treated them as if they were VIPs.

"Something tells me this is going to be one hell of a family reunion." Helen said all of a sudden. Mine turned her head slightly in curiosity.

Naruto looked at her from the corner of his eye and chuckled. "Tell me about it. I've been waiting for this moment for years." he's not angry to the point he wants to kill his dad – not anymore; his time in that fucked up mirror dimension that resembled his home had curbed that mentality a lot. But he still has some anger in him. So he might just deck his old man in the face, or give him a scare with the ability to alter his appearance thanks to the blood of his other selves he drank.

Chortling Helen put an arm around his shoulder and pulled him in for a hug. She had a cheerful, but cheeky grin as she rubbed her cheek against his scalp. "Deneve and I will look out for you. Even if you don't need it."

"He hopefully won't need it." Deneve said, pointedly. "He's in familiar territory and he knows the people here. If anything he should be looking out for us."

Naruto let out an amused laugh. "Very true, and I will look out for you. You looked for me when you found me so it's only fair I do the same for you."

Mine hummed softly as she listened in to their conversation. From the sound of things, her brother is pretty close with those two unknown women. But... she can't help but feel something is... off about them. The redhead didn't know why, but, her gut told her there was more to those silver eyed women than meets the eye. She was missing something, but didn't know what.

But right now she had to get her little brother to their dad.

Hopefully he will keep his word on giving her answers.


End file.
